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