Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Don’t be surprised if Pacquiao takes a beating from Clottey

By Esteban Garduno: As soon as I found out that Manny Pacquiao and his team chose to fight Joshua Clottey rather than stay and negotiate a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., I saw it as a fatal mistake by Pacquiao’s team. Mayweather has no power to speak of and only sparingly throws punches nowadays for some reason. Clottey is a whole different breed of fighter altogether. Clottey has superb hand speed, good power and isn’t afraid to take the fight to his opponent.

Clottey won’t wear down or back off against Pacquiao like Miguel Cotto did in his recent fight with Pacquiao. Clottey will just keep coming and coming and firing away at Pacquiao and making him miserable for as long as it lasts. Right about now, people are blowing smoke up Pacquiao’s backside, telling him how great he is, and saying how he’s going to destroy Clottey.

Pacquiao, being human, obviously is aware that people think he’s going to run over Clottey and I see this as having an effect on his mental preparation for the fight. Pacquiao is going to go into this fight thinking he’s got this guy right where he wants him, and is going to take a dish of punishment that he won’t soon forget.

Pacquiao may have pumped up to welterweight by eating and working out, but his frame is still basically that of a smaller fighter. I only weight 140, but if I was to put on 80 pounds of muscle, I still wouldn’t have a heavyweight frame to compete against one of those big guys round after round. We’re bone structure.

Pacquiao hasn’t had to suffer the effects of having a strong welterweight pound away at him for 12 rounds as of yet, because Manny destroyed Oscar De La Hoya, who starved himself down from light middleweight to take the fight with Pacquiao. And Ricky Hatton was a light welterweight, and a short one at that.

Cotto, for his part, also was a small welterweight at only 5’7”. Cotto fought timidly after being dropped twice early in the fight and basically went into survival mode after the 4th round. It wasn’t like Cotto stayed in there and traded with Pacquiao for the full 12 rounds, because Miguel looked like he was thinking survival.

Clottey won’t be like that. He’s going to go be stalking Pacquiao all around the ring like a deer hunter going after a wounded buck. Pacquiao, with his sense of invincibility gained from his wins over De La Hoya, Hatton and Cotto, will make a calculated error of trying to meet fire with fire and soon find himself in a hopeless situation where Clottey is giving him a beating.

Rather than changing up to the situation and correcting his course, Pacquiao will continue to try and trade with the bigger and stronger Clottey despite the punishment he starts to take in the fight. Clottey will probably be carrying around at least 175 pounds on his frame by the time the fight starts, and will be like a huge ball of fire chasing after the little in comparison Pacquiao, whipping him with punches over and over again, and causing looks of pain on the face of Pacquiao.

Instead of backing off and regrouping, Pacquiao will wade into Clottey like the Titanic trying to stream through a huge iceberg. Clottey will wound Pacquiao with a huge shot to the head by the 7th or 8th round, and then batter him at will until the referee steps in to save Pacquiao from taking any further punishment. Roach will come into the ring, and carry Pacquiao back to the corner in his arms like a mother hen.

Source: boxingnews24.com

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