It was around the 5th round when I started to hear phrases like:
“The fix is in!!”
“This is awful.”
“Why isn’t he throwing a punch?”
“Is Jim Lampley in love with Manny Pacquiao?”
“This sucks!!
“I want a refund.”
That was some of the PG comments, so of the other stuff I overheard I can not put on the site. None of this was Manny Pacquiao’s fault (more on him later) this was all on Joshua Clottey.
The part of me that loves sports, the part of me that loves boxing doesn’t want to think anything fishy was going on in this bout, but if everything was on the up and up that leads me back to the Clottey and what was he thinking.
Clottey was the underdog, he was never going to get a close decision and everyone knew the only chance he had to win was be aggressive and dominate the entire fight.
But Clottey did the exact opposite, for twelve rounds he stood in the middle of the ring using his gloves as earmuffs as Pacquiao swung away.
It was twelve of the exact same rounds.
Clottey never tried to win the fight. It didn’t even look like he cared if he won the fight. It looked like the only thing he cared about was collecting his chick and not getting knocked out.
I have never seen a fighter so happy after being so thoroughly dominated.
Where was his pride? Where was his competitive spirit? Where was his male ego?
He was the bigger stronger man, but not at one point in the fight did he ever try to win. He embarrassed himself and he embarrassed the sport of boxing.
People all around the world paid $50 to see a fight and what they saw was a glorified sparring session.
When Floyd Mayweather faced Juan Manuel Marquez he was dominant, but Marquez tried his heart out even though he was the smaller, slower fighting. Clottey was the bigger fighter and didn’t put up any resistance to Pacquiao.
What is really sad is when Clottey got around to throwing a punch he was very effective. The problem is though when one man throws 1251 punches and you only throw 399 it is hard to make a case you didn’t throw the fight.
I honestly believe Clottey purse should be held while they do an investigation.
The only good thing that came out of this fight is that we never have to see Clottey on PPV or any major network ever again. He should be banished because it is one thing to get beat, but it is a whole other thing to just a collect a check and not even attempt to win.
As for Manny Pacquiao it is hard to find fault in his performance. Even though he was comfortably ahead he continue to go for the knockout when he had absolutely no reason to put himself in harm’s way.
Immediately after the fight I saw a lot of negativity being thrown toward Pacquiao, but I think that is because HBO and specifically Jim Lampley were way over the top in their coverage of the fight, when in actuality it was a dud.
I don’t know how anyone can dislike Pacquiao, he is such a likable individual, plus even in a fight where one person made it clear from the beginning he didn’t want to fight, Pacquiao tried his best to make an entertaining fight.
The fight everyone wants to see is Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, but Mayweather will have a much harder time against Shane Mosley than Pacquiao did against Clottey. If Mayweather is able to win, the fight needs to happened even if that means Floyd dropping his drug testing demand.
There is simply no other fight for Pacquiao right now that means anything except the winner of Mayweather vs. Mosley.
I am just going to act like the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight never happened and I suggest you do the same.