By Dave Lahr: I don’t know if Manny Pacquiao fans are noticing or not, but no one is talking about the Pacquiao-Clottey fight anymore. If you look at the internet boxing forums, very few fans are discussing the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight. That’s a bad sign. It shows to me that this is a poor match up. I think Pacquiao’s selling power will be tested for this fight. This is a bout that is lopsided to begin with going in the fight with the much more popular and talented Pacquiao facing Clottey, an obscure fighter who is coming off of a loss to recent Pacquiao victim Miguel Cotto.

How do you sell a fight like this? ‘Clottey may have been beaten by Cotto, but it least it was close.’ I think Pacquiao’s management really made a mistake with this fight. Since Floyd Mayweather Jr. agreed to fight Shane Mosley, basically nothing is being said about the Pacquiao-Clottey fight. Even before that, it good portion of what was being said about the Pacquiao-Clottey fight was negative, such as, why is Pacquiao choosing to fight a guy that was beaten in his last fight by Cotto?

There’s really nothing to discuss about Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight. I mean, Clottey is a good fighter, but he doesn’t typically put in the kind of performances in his past fights that would give you any indication that he will do anything other than lose to Pacquiao on March 13th.

No doubt the Mayweather-Mosley fight is overshadowing the Pacquiao-Clottey fight. However, I think nobody would still be talking about the Pacquiao-Clottey fight even if the Mayweather-Mosley fight didn’t take place. It’s just not an interesting fight and there’s no sense of drama. Clottey doesn’t throw a lot of punches, tires late, and mainly focuses on blocking punches rather than throwing them.

That’s not the type of fighter that people can see beating Pacquiao or even being competitive with him. My guess is that people would be still ranting about the missed opportunity for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and would still be speculating about who would have won the fight had it taken place rather than discussing the Pacquiao-Clottey fight, which many people see as a mismatch on paper.

Some boxing fans feel that the Mayweather-Mosley fight will be the better fight while the Pacquiao-Clottey bout will be ultimately the better fight because of the action. I disagree. I think Clottey will tire too fast and not throw enough punches to make it interesting.

It might be a somewhat competitive fight for five rounds, but after that, Pacquiao will dominate a tiring Clottey. The Mayweather-Mosley fight will be competitive all the way through because of Mosley’s hand speed, power and constant pressure. Mosley will bring out the best in Mayweather for 12 rounds. I can’t say the same for Clottey.

The Pacquiao-Clottey fight could pick up interest for boxing fans if something happens that would handicap Pacquiao. I don’t know what they could do to get people interested. Maybe if Pacquiao broke his hand and decided to take the fight with only one could hand. That might make things interesting. You then could see Clottey having a real chance to win the fight, unlike now.