By Jason Kim: With few boxing fans giving him much of a chance to beat WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao on March 13th, former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey remains confident that he has what it takes to beat Pacquiao. In article at Boxing Talk, Clottey says “I have a lot of things to beat Manny Pacquiao. I have my defense in there and I’m a strong welterweight. He’s [Pacquiao] fighting one of the best out there and I think I have enough to beat him.”

If Clottey wants to fulfill his dream of beating Pacquiao, he’s going to have to fight much better than he has in his last fight against Miguel Cotto, as well as his fights against Zab Judah, Diego Corrales, and Antonio Margarito. In each one of these fights, Clottey sparingly threw punches and fought for extended periods of time with his gloves glued to his face covering up and trying to block punches.

If Clottey fights like this against Pacquiao, you can expect it to be an easy night for Manny. Clottey has to find a way to be busy enough to win rounds, because it’s unlikely that he’s going to be able to knock Pacquiao out. It’s also pretty farfetched that Clottey has much of a chance to beat Pacquiao by a decision.

Pacquiao is the champion coming into this fight and the cash cow of boxing. It’s doubtful that judges will give Clottey the nod in the fight unless he gives Pacquiao a ferocious beating beyond the shadow a doubt. We saw in Pacquiao’s controversial 12 round split decision win over Juan Manuel Marquez in early 2008 that it’s not easy to beat Pacquiao by a decision.

It takes something really special like the performance put on by Erik Morales in his 12 round decision win over Pacquiao in 2005. Morales threw a ton of punches in every round and kept backing Pacquiao up and getting the better of him with hard combinations. Clottey may not have it in him to fight like this. His whole offense seems to be centered on him throwing a few punches and then covering up for prolonged periods of time.

That style won’t work against Pacquiao. Clottey needs to find some endurance somewhere in training camp and use that in his fight with Pacquiao. At 32, it’s doubtful that Clottey can be anything other than what he’s always been in the past.