Watch Pacquiao vs Clottey: The Event

Update: Pacquiao wins in a unanimous decision.

NEXT: Mayweather vs Mosley on May 1, 2010...Let us see what happens next after this fight. will Pacquiao and Mayweather agree to meet in the same ring for a scheduled fight? Watch out!

Clottey’s lethal weapons – uppercut, headbutt

Watch Pacquiao vs Clottey

DALLAS – Freddie Roach said there are only two things to avoid when you’re up against Joshua Clottey.

One, the uppercut, and two, the headbutt.

“If you fall into the pocket with him, his best punch is an uppercut and his second best punch is a headbutt,” said Roach Tuesday when Manny Pacquiao held a media workout that turned out to be fans day as well.

More than 400 fans and media trooped to the Convential Hall of the Gaylord Texan Hotel here to watch the pound-for-pound champion break a sweat just four days before the big showdown at the Cowboys Stadium.

Pacquiao did a couple of rounds with the mitts, worked the speed bag, did a lot of crunches, and spent close to an hour fielding questions from the media. He sat with Roach on the edge of the ring to face the press.

Roach said Clottey could be a dirty fighter if and when he wants to, but said they’ve worked out a plan to avoid any of it.

“We’re not going to go in there. We’re going to fight him at a distance,” said Roach.

Over the last seven weeks at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, Roach and Pacquiao, the hottest tandem in boxing today, have worked on the moves that would keep Clottey guessing, not knowing what to do, what to expect.

They plan to run rings around the bigger, stronger but older fighter from Ghana, the way they did against Oscar dela Hoya or even Miguel Cotto. They had very little time to do it against Ricky Hatton who was out in two rounds.

“He’ll wait for you to throw a combination and then, when you’ve stopped, he’ll throw back. So if you stand in front of him, you’re an idiot,” he said. “We’re not going to do that. He’s not going to be able to find us,” said Roach.

“My quickness will be the key, my speed,” said Pacquiao, who will defend his WBO welterweight title for the first time, almost four months before he took it away from Cotto and became the sport’s only seven-time world champion.

Pacquiao and Clottey will come face-to-face Wednesday for the final press conference at the Cowboys Stadium, and on Thursday they should spend their last day at the gym in preparation for Friday’s official weigh-in.

watch Pacquiao vs Clottey Fight

By: Abac Cordero
Source: boxing news update

Roach now predicting 6th or 7th round knockout win for Pacquiao

Watch Pacquiao vs Clottey - Freddie Roach, the trainer that likes to make predictions, is now predicting for his fighter Manny Pacquiao to stop Joshua Clottey in the 6th 7th rounds on March 13th. Roach likes to start high with his knockout predictions and then come down in the rounds as the fights draw nearer. In this case, Roach started with a 12th round knockout win for Pacquiao, and then last week changed it to a 9th round knockout. Now suddenly Roach is shooting for the 6th or 7th rounds.

What’s weird this is that Roach isn’t picking one specific round for the KO. This is kind of a departure for Roach, because with his predictions he usually picks a specific round for his knockout predictions. It could be that Roach is feeling less confident about Pacquiao’s chances after seeing how strong Clottey has been looking as of late.

I just hope Pacquiao is getting some kind of motivation out of this because I don’t see him getting anywhere close to a knockout in this fight. In fact, I think Clottey is going to give Pacquiao a vicious beating that he won’t soon forget. Maybe Pacquiao wins, but maybe he doesn’t. But whatever the case, I see Clottey putting a serious hurting on Pacquiao and beating him up to the point where Pacquiao might not feel like singing after the fight.

Roach says “He’s [Clottey] going to last six or seven rounds. He’s going to be overwhelmed with the punches. He’s never been attacked like this before.” I guess Roach hasn’t seen Clottey’s fights against Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto.

If he had, he’d know that Clottey has been in with fighters that tried – and failed – at overwhelming him with punches. Clottey took the huge shots from both Margarito and was never hurt in the least by either one of them. Roach’s predictions are nothing but blather as far as I’m concerned. Clottey isn’t going nowhere for 12 rounds.

If there is anyone getting stopped in this fight, it’s going to be Pacquiao, not Clottey. Pacquiao has already been stopped twice in his career, so he would be the one more familiar with being knocked out than Clottey.

I know if Clottey is going to win, but I do know he won’t be getting knocked out and he’s going to be the one looking in better shape by the end of this fight. He’s going to be too big for the small Pacquiao to manhandle like his last three opponents Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto. De La Hoya was shot at the time of his fight with Pacquiao.

Hatton and Cotto are small fighters are not true welterweights in my view. Cotto may fight at welterweight, but at 5’7”, he’s more of a light welterweight than a true welterweight. Pacquiao will be matched against the biggest opponent size-wise of his career and I think he’s going to have a lot of problems with Clottey.

I expect Pacquiao to get really busted up in this fight unless he decides to stay on the outside and do a little running. If he gets too close to Clottey for any length of time, Clottey will beat Pacquiao black and blue with his bigger size and strength. I know I’m right about all of this.

Source: boxingnews.com by Dave Lahr

Pacquiao will going to overwhelm Clottey: Roach

Freddie Roach as usual is predicting a knockout for his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, saying in an article at the Manila Times, “He’s [Pacquiao] going to overwhelm him” [Clottey]. With Manny’s speed and his combinations, I do believe he will be the first person to stop Clottey before the 12th round. I know Clottey is a big strong guy and a great fighter and we respect him as a real tough guy, but we also know his characteristic, we know his mistakes and we know his bad habits, which we can exploit to the hilt.” I agree with Roach.

However, I think Clottey is more of a bottom 10 guy rather than his inflated number #1 ranking by the World Boxing Organization. Pacquiao should be able to beat this guy without too many problems aside from an occasional shot thrown back from Clottey. Roach has talked about Pacquiao “not being there for Clottey” when it comes time for Joshua to try and land his own shots. This suggests that Pacquiao will use his normal in and out attacks to keep from getting hit by some of the big left hooks and uppercuts from Clottey.

Clottey tends to plod forward slowly, so it’s unlikely that he’ll be able to chase after Pacquiao and land anything when he backs away after landing his own shots. Clottey has little power with his right hand and tends to push with it while leaning forward. Pacquiao will eat him up with shots when Clottey does try and throw with this hand.

If Pacquiao doesn’t stop Clottey with a flurry of shots early on, he’ll get him later in the fight when Clottey runs out of gas by the 9th round. Although Clottey always looks in shape for his fights and talks about the long runs he makes during training, he fades fast and is largely ineffective after the 6th. This is the perfect opponent for Pacquiao to look good against.

The fight will be taking place at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium, where it’s expected to be filled with as many as 45,000 fans. This is a major victory for Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, who showed that Pacquiao can get good numbers even against an obscure opponent like Clottey. Pacquiao doesn’t even need to take on a well known fighter to bring in large amounts of people.

If Pacquiao can continue to get good numbers like this against opponents that boxing fans have little knowledge of, there’s no point in risking his neck against the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Shane Mosley, who would have a good chance of beating Pacquiao and upsetting the gravy train. Arum has talked about having future fights at the Dallas Cowboy Stadium.

However, it’s doubtful that it will involve Pacquiao facing Mayweather, because Floyd wants Pacquiao to agree to random blood tests to ensure he’s not taking any performance enhancing drugs, but Pacquiao prefers to follow the guidelines of the Athletic Commission for whatever state he’s fighting in. As of now, Texas and Nevada, two of the states where Pacquiao could possibly be fighting next, only require urine to be tested and not blood. This is why it’s unlikely that Pacquiao will be facing Mayweather in the future unless he agrees to some form of blood tests that Mayweather will find acceptable. By Sean McDaniel:

Source: boxingnews24.com