By Alexander Fugate: All we have heard from Roach since him and Pacquiao walked away from a fight with Mayweather and signed to face Clottey is how it will be a good fight and a more exciting fight for the fans than a fight with Mayweather. It seems like whenever Roach was actually talking about Pacquiao’s bout with Clottey and not talking about Mayweather, he told us that Pacquiao fights for the fans and that his fight with Clottey would be exciting and we should be happy that Pacquiao was facing Clottey and not Mayweather.

Because the fans wouldn’t like to see that fight since it would be too boring because Mayweather doesn’t try to slug it out. But Clottey would be a tough fight and really exciting. However, the consensus seems to be that last night’s “event” was a terribly boring PPV; none of the undercards provided any excitement and neither did the main event. If Roach or Pacquiao honestly thought Clottey would fight any differently than he did last night, than they either never watched Clottey fight or they thought he was going to come out and totally change his style from the only way he’s ever fought.

Was all that talk about an exciting fight simply a ploy to promote the fight? If so, it may have led more people to buy Saturday night’s PPV, but it could backfire if Manny fights another B level fighter or anyone without a large fan following. There are many that heard Roach proclaim how exciting the match would be and there will be many who remember this next time Pacquiao fights. If he faces the winner of Mayweather-Mosley it won’t matter because that’s the fight the fans want to see. But if he faces Margarito or Yuri Foreman than Roach’s continuous talk to hype up Pacquiao-Clottey could backfire and lower his next fight’s PPV buys. Casual fans simply won’t want to pay to see a repeat of last night and another unfamiliar name that is a big underdog could lead many to expect the same and decide to save their $50.

Back on January 10th right after Clottey was named as Pacquiao’s next opponent an article ran in GMA News that reported, “Roach said Clottey…is one guy who loves to mix it up engages in toe-to-toe action.” Roach was quoted in that article saying, “I wanted Manny in an action fight, and that’s what we got with Clottey.” Ten days later on January 20th Roach told fighthype.com “This is a much better fight for the fans…’” compared to a Mayweather-Pacquiao match-up. On January 24th Brad Cooney of Examiner.com ran a story that read “He (Roach) even says that the fight against Clottey will be a more exciting fight than a fight with Mayweather” and then quoted Roach saying, “’Unlike Mayweather, Clottey will stand and fight and not run. This is a competitive fight, and it won’t be a boring one.” On February 11th in an interview with Fightfan.com Roach said, “its (the Pacquiao-Clottey fight) will be really, really exciting…” Roach continued to reiterate this all the way up to the fight.

Despite Roach constantly being very vocal about how boring a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would be, that is what the public wants to see. Also noteworthy is the fact that the public made Mayweather’s fight with De La Hoya the biggest grossing boxing fight ever and also set a record for most PPV buys. Mayweather-Hatton had over 900,000 domestic PPV buys and over one million in the UK. Then Mayweather-Marquez greatly surpassed expectations getting over a million domestic PPV buys. Roach can say Mayweather fights are boring all he wants but as long as Mayweather continues to be the biggest draw in boxing, than its obvious the public and fans disagree with him.

Almost everyone seems to be in unison that Pacquiao-Clottey was a terribly boring fight, with even worse undercard fights. With Roach’s loquaciousness about how Clottey would be a more exciting fight than Mayweather, and Manny often stating how he fights for the fans, the only logical conclusions are: 1)Roach and Manny thought Clottey would suddenly change his style after all these years or 2) Roach and Manny don’t understand or comprehend that fans enjoy watching the best fight the best. Most could care less if Manny throws 100 punches per round if he can’t land anything meaningful above his opponents stomach and his opponent only throws 33 punches a round. Hopefully, all the negative feedback regarding the excitement of Pacquiao-Clottey will lead to Pacquiao taking on the top echelon of welterweights.