Welterweight Joshua Clottey exudes a confidence that few fighters have in this sport. Anyone that receives an opportunity to get in the ring with the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world might question themselves. Not Clottey. This is his fight to win, not only for himself, but for his native Ghana. If he’s victorious over the highly favored Manny Pacquaio, it would be one of the biggest upsets in recent years.
What does the former welterweight champion really think about Manny Pacquaio? “He is small, but very fast,” stated Clottey, who recently gave me a brief description of his opponent for March 13. He believes he can beat Pacquaio and is determined to prove it. Clottey conducts himself quite differently than Floyd Mayweather Jr. He prefers to refrain from trash talk, but remains optimistic regarding his chances. With an enormous amount of respect for Manny Pacquiao, Clottey is thankful for the opportunity and doesn’t take it lightly.
“I’ll fight anyone. I don’t care who it is,” says Clottey, who has never been afraid of facing top-caliber fighters. The match-up with Pacquiao will be the most challenging of his boxing career. In his opinion, size matters. Before Pacquaio’s fight with Miguel Cotto, Clottey went on record with me that he was leaning towards Pacquaio to win. However, he said, “Cotto is too big and strong for Pacquiao.” Now if Clottey couldn’t get a decision over Cotto, yet Pacquaio defeated Cotto without breaking a sweat, what makes Clottey so confident he can win against Pacquaio?
When Clottey is on point, he can become a serious threat with his tremendous amount of strength and power, while using his big body to his advantage. However, size really doesn’t matter when facing Manny Pacquaio. How many times have we heard people say that Pacquiao is too small for an opponent? Too many to count. And what happens to that opponent? Pacquaio defeats them with ease.
Clottey will hope that his tight guard will block Pacquiao’s punches from coming in. He will simply try to absorb the ones that do get through. Call me a pessimist, but how can you defend against Pacquaio’s blinding combinations? He throws from the strangest angles and it’s impossible to see his punches coming. Pacquiao will not hesitate to capitalize on some of Clottey’s weaknesses. A problem that may occur in this match-up is that Clottey has a tendency to become complacent in fights and doesn’t finish strong in later rounds.
Regardless, Clottey has been training hard in Florida and has a significant chance at winning, but the way Pacquiao has fought as of late, he seems unstoppable.
Source: vegas.fighthype.com
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