By Armando Paz: After the Soap Opera better known as the Pacquaio-Mayweather negotiations ended the question aroused who should be the next opponent for both fighters? For Pacquaio, names such as Paulie Malignaggi, Yuri Foreman, and Timothy Bradley all came up. Foreman the World Boxing Association junior middleweight champion a fellow Top Rank fighter was a serious contender but Pacquiao thought he was too big and didn’t want to climb up another division.

After the mess with Mayweather it would be hard to try to get a Bradley fight since it would include a co-promotion with Showtime the people who represent Bradley.

The name Joshua Clottey didn’t come up and yet he was a logical choice due to his record and what happened in his fight with Miguel Cotto.

Joshua Clottey the former IBF welterweight champion is a durable fighter with a style reminiscent of Ike “bazooka” Quartey Although, he doesn’t have the power of his fellow Ghana native he moves forward with both gloves up high in an armadillo defense. Importantly, he never has been stopped like Quartey and like Ike he feels he has both bad luck and decisions go against his favor.

Quartey had close decisions against Oscar De La Hoya and Vernon Forrest go the other way as Clottey recently did with Miguel Cotto. A fight that he out landed his adversary but seemed to let slip in the last two rounds. In addition, a fight that Pacquaio saw in person and felt Clottey had won. Nonetheless, I scored it a 114-114 draw with Clottey winning 6 and Cotto winning 5; and with one even and the early knockdown scored by Cotto an even fight.

Many gave Cotto props deserving for fighting with a cut eye and yet Clottey fighting with an injured leg was overlooked after he either slipped or was thrown into the canvas in Round 5 of the fight; you be the judge. Clottey has only two more losses in his resume. One was a disqualification against Carlos Baldomir which most observers had him clearly winning when it was stopped in Round 11 and a lost to Antonio Margarito whose entire career has been put into question due to the loaded gloves scandal before the Shane Mosley fight. On the winning side of the ledger, Clottey has wins over names Zab Judah, Diego Corrales, and Shamone Alverez.

Manny Pacquaio has the ability and skill to make it an easy fight of Clottey if he uses his speed and footwork for in and out movements and try to win by points. But Pacquaio has made it clear he fights exciting action packed fights to please his fans and the audience. As a result, it is unlikely that Freddie Roach will implement a cautious tactical fight that I believe is more suited for the fight. Clottey will not be fighting in a catch weight and he has fought as high as Junior Middleweight on several occasions.

If Pacquaio goes toe to toe he will likely face some short uppers that the Ghana fighter throws with both hands. His lead straight left may get neutralized by Clottey high guard defense so expect him to work the body to try to get him to lower his gloves. Will there be any carry over of the numerous wars that he had with Morales, Marquez, Barrera, and more recently Cotto? Pacquaio is now 31 and has been fighting professionally for 15 years without any major hiatus.

As boxers age they rely more on boxing skills as they lose speed, reflexes, and agility. Nonetheless, Pacquaio has not shown any major signs of deterioration and his action packed style over the calculative tactical style will make Pacquiao vs. Clottey a more entertaining fight than many anticipate. So now it’s Pacquaio vs. Clottey never expected but through ironic justice now a reality on March 13, 2010.