By Eric Thomas: For fans of former IBF welterweight champion Joshua Clottey (35-4, 20 KO’s), he’ll be back in action on March 12th against Calvin Green (21-5-1, 13 KO’s) on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto vs. Ricardo Mayorga fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Clottey, 33, has been in no rush to get back in the ring after making a bundle in losing by a lopsided 12 round decision against Manny Pacquiao last year in March 2010.

If Clottey was hoping that his absence would lead to bigger fights, he’s wrong because Green is the furthest thing from a huge fight. Clottey, ranked #5 by the WBO in the welterweight division, has decided to move up in weight and try his luck at junior middleweight. He has to now start facing bigger fighters and ones with better power than he’s been accustomed to facing in the past. The power of his opponents isn’t the real problem for Clottey.

His problem is facing fighters that can throw more than 20 punches per round, because that’s probably all it will take to beat Clottey nowadays. His work rate is horrible, and he seems unable to fight hard late into his fights. It’s been three years since Clottey last won a fight and that was against the smallish Zab Judah. Clottey hasn’t beaten a quality welterweight since 2006 when he defeated Richard Gutierrez. Since then, Clottey has picked up wins over Diego Corrales (a super featherweight), Felix Flores, Shamone Alvarez and Judah. This is why it seems unlikely that Clottey will do anything at junior middleweight unless an opportunity is basically handed to him by his promoter Bob Arum to fight one of his fighters like Miguel Cotto again.