By Dave Lahr: Former International Boxing Federation welterweight champion is one of Bob Arum’s fighters in his stable, and unfortunately Clottey looked horrible in the worst way in losing to Manny Pacquiao last March at the Cowboy Stadium, in Arlington, Texas. Juan Manuel Marquez, in the meantime, just finished beating Juan Diaz in an impressive 12 round decision last Saturday night.
Marquez now wants to fight Pacquiao for a third time. Arum isn’t interesting in letting Marquez fight Pacquiao, saying in article at ESPN, “Let Marquez prove that he belong with Manny at a higher weight. Let him go fight Andre Berto, or Clottey, Tim Bradley or Alexander.” Ignoring Alexander, Berto and Bradley for a second, is Arum suggesting that Marquez could get a fight with Pacquiao if Marquez fights Clottey? Damn, why would Marquez fight that dude? Clottey has lost his last two fights.
It looks like Arum wants Marquez to do him a favor by fighting his fighter Clottey. Arum must think that Clottey could beat Marquez, because I couldn’t see him letting Clottey fight someone outside of his Top Rank stable that he thought would beat Clottey.
But Joshua really needs a win over a named fighter and I don’t see anyone interested in giving him the chance after his poor performance against Pacquiao. But if Marquez was to take him on, Clottey would really be able to help change the direction of his career if he was able to beat Marquez.
It’s clever of Arum to mention Clottey as a fighter that Marquez would have to beat before he’d allow him to fight Pacquiao. It’s like he’s saying ‘You do me a favor and I’ll fix you up.’ The problem with is Marquez wouldn’t fight Clottey unless there was some kind of guarantee, because there would be no point in taking him on otherwise. Clottey really stunk out the joint with his non-performance against Pacquiao last time out, and Marquez would never consider fighting him because he’s not a popular fighter.
If Arum wants Marquez to fight his fighter Clottey, then he should tell Marquez what the deal is. Arum just needs to break it down to Marquez and I bet Marquez would go for it if he trusted Arum. Marquez would have to not only trust Arum, but he would have to feel that he would have a good chance at beating Clottey.
It wouldn’t be an easy fight because of Clottey’s huge size advantage. Clottey puts on a lot of weight after he weighs in for his fights and comes into the bouts almost a light heavyweight. Marquez would be at a big size disadvantage against Clottey and that would be a problem for him. I do think Marquez would beat Clottey, but he would get hit a lot and would get beaten up a little.
Heck, look at Pacquiao after he fought Clottey. Pacquiao’s face looked like it had been run over by a big truck. And that was with Clottey throwing only 20 punches per round. Imagine what a busy Clottey would have done to Pacquiao.
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