Pacman Outspeeds Clottey
The world's number 1 boxer, Manny Pacquaio produced an exhibition of amazing speed, skill and energy to give outclassed Clottey no chance of springing an upset.
Pacman retained his WBO World Welterweight crown with a lopsided points decision on all 3 judges scorecards against the much bigger Clottey.
Pacman started quickly as always peppering his opponent with shots from different angles. It was clear that Clottey was way slower and he spent nearly all the first round covering up absorbing most of the punches on his high guard.
Manny was having some difficulty connecting frequently with clean punches since Clottey was so cautious that he would rarely let down his tight guard. He had his hands covering his face and his elbows tucked in protecting most of his body.
So Manny would land a lot of punches on Clottey's gloves but picking some shots to the head around the side of the Ghanaian's guard and ripping some body shots in below the elbows. Clottey would respond with the occasional good right hand but this was very sporadic and nearly always punished with punches in reply from Manny.
It was interesting to see how Manny would break Clottey's tight defences down and as the rounds went by you felt that Clottey needed to take some risks and throw some punches if he was to avoid losing every single round and give himself a chance of an upset.
However, risk-taking did not appear to be on Clottey's agenda and opening up would of course have left him open to Pacman's rapid fire combinations. Given that this was the biggest fight that Joshua will ever have though, and given his advantages in size and strength he could have been less defensive as the fight wore on and it was clear he couldn't win on points.
He went the distance though, an achievement that nobody has managed with Pacquaio now for quite some time.
Manny put in a sparkling performance against a bigger and very defensive-minded opponent and it would be great to see him fight the winner of Mayweather v Mosley next. It's difficult to see how either of them could cope with Manny's exceptional, speed, accuracy and energy and if Mayweather defeats Mosley I think he may want to duck fighting Pacman again.
