By Dave Lahr: Okay, I’ve seen the Pacquiao-Clottey fight, and I now think Pacquiao should consider himself the luckiest man on the face of the earth that he wasn’t facing Floyd Mayweather Jr. instead of Joshua Clottey last night at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Mayweather would have boxed the socks of Pacquiao and given headaches for ages. As it was, Clottey hit Pacquiao at will. Really, it was like Clottey couldn’t miss with his shots. Granted, it would have helped if Clottey had at least thrown a few more punches and shown an interest in actually winning the fight instead of just looking to survive.
But he landed some nice shots when he would remember throw punches. Pacquiao’s face looked badly marked up by the end of the fight, and I think he would have been sliced, diced and minced had it been Mayweather in the ring inside of the limited Clottey. I can see now why Clottey was “selected” as Pacquiao’s opponent rather than someone else like Mayweather or Mosley.
Clottey did his part of playing as a human punching bag, offering up little in the way of offense that would trip up the Pacquiao gravy train. I think now more than ever, Pacquiao won’t be put in with Mayweather. You can see how basic and beatable Pacquiao is after the Clottey fight.
No way will be put in with a sharp shooting talent like Mayweather. Yeah, we’re going to here all the same excuses about Pacquiao not wanting to take the Olympic style random blood tests, and that jive. But the bottom line is Pacquiao won’t be put in with a fighter like Mayweather. If Pacquiao is going to fight anyone, it will be Shane Mosley after Mosley gets dominated by Mayweather. Oh, it won’t look good for Pacquiao to be facing a Mayweather victim, but that’s I see it happening. It’ll be Mosley, maybe Miguel Cotto again or Yuri Foreman. It won’t Mayweather.
What I saw of Pacquiao last night against Clottey, I think even Mosley will wipe the deck with Pacquiao all night long. The problem for Manny is that the guy has no defense. He blocks nothing. He keeps his hands up like he’s going to block punches, but he doesn’t. The shots that Clottey was throwing sailed right through Pacquiao’s gloves as if Manny had an eye problem picking up the shots.
If Clottey can do that, as well as Cotto, Mosley will rip him apart. Mosley won’t stop throwing and will let his punches go unlike Clottey. Mayweather would literally top with the Pacquiao that fought on Saturday night. It wouldn’t even be interesting aside from looking it in clinical sort of way with the hype machine being dismantled. I don’t know what to say about Clottey. He had his chance and blew it.
If he had thrown 20 more punches per round, I think he could have beaten Pacquiao. I mean Clottey would have landed all 20 of those punches through the nonexistent defense of Pacquiao would have been enough to get the win.
I think Pacquiao needs to continue fighting the guys he’s been fighting, and stay away from the likes of Mayweather or Mosley. That’s my advice. I think Pacquiao can beat the Hatton, Cotto, De La Hoya and Clottey types, but it’s a whole different matter facing Mayweather and Mosley.
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