By Eric Hernandez: As I await tonight’s welterweight battle I find myself asking Why. Why would Manny Pacquiao risk a big money fight With Floyd Mayweather by fighting a guy in Joshua Clottey. That will be extremely difficult to look good against, he has a tough chin and his defense will make it difficult for Pac Man to dominate him the way he dominated both Oscar Dela Hoya and Miguel Cotto.
Clottey as the natural welterweight should be over 150 LBS come fight time and might hold a 10 pound advantage over Pacman. Another reason I would have avoided this fight is the fact that clottey tends to use his head as much as his jab and if he does manage to land a blow with his head and open a cut on pacman it can lead to a long night for the pacman.
I think in his attempt to prove to Mayweather that he didn’t need him he went out and sought a name fighter without thinking of the risk involve. In contrast Mayweather took an opponent (Mosley) with more name recognition who is well respected and was last seen destroying Margarito, So again Mayweather gets the upper hand. What should Pacman have done instead?
He should have played it safe and taken an opponent with low risk where he can look good while he waits out Mayweather, or if he really wanted to upstage Mayweather while still getting his mega fight then he should have opted to fight Berto. If he beats berto then Mayweather would have no choice but to come after the pacman or forever be known for ducking him.
The better play would have been to fight as a junior welterweight and challenge Amir Khan who brings in the crowd from Europe and is a more engaging personality than Clottey. Could you imagine a 24/7 starting Amir Khan? Let’s face it this fight has no business being on pay per view but such is the state of boxing, 30 years ago this fight would have been fought on a Saturday afternoon on CBS.
Having said all that I expect pacman to win this fight going away based purely on his hands speed but if he allows Clottey to rough him up or worst if Clottey does not respect his punching power then don’t be sruprise if Clottey wins this fight by decision. For the sake of boxing I be rooting for Pacman to win because I think boxing needs a Pacman-Mayweather maga fight and I just hope that somewhere in this fight weather it’s in the middle of a round or worst while visiting the canvas Pacman doesn’t find himself asking the same question I posed, Why?
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