Combat Sports Preview: Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey

Saturday night one of boxing pound-for-pound kings, Manny Pacquiao, will tangle with Joshua Clottey in one of the biggest events of the boxing year.  While clearly it isn't the clash many were hoping for between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, it is still a very legitimate fight.

Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook chimes in with some thoughts on the event in his very good preview of the fight:

let me get this out of the way: I'm very aware that Joshua Clottey is a very good fighter. I have him ranked No. 5 at welterweight, where the top six is better than any division in boxing, and by a wide margin. There are three pound-for-pound top five guys at the top of this weight class, and the next three (Cotto, Clottey and Berto) aren't anything to shake a stick at either.

I know Clottey fought Margarito hard back when Margarito was steamrolling everyone. I know you can argue that Clottey should have beaten Cotto. I know Clottey beat Zab Judah via technical decision, and also feel that had Judah continued on in that fight, it just would've turned more and more in Clottey's favor.

But Joshua Clottey is not going to beat Manny Pacquiao. He's not going to come close to doing so, either.

Since rising in weight from his brief pit stop at 135 pounds, where he nearly beheaded poor David Diaz, Manny Pacquiao has taken Oscar de la Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto to the woodshed. Each one has gone down spectacularly -- one beaten into retirement, one knocked clean out, and one so overwhelmed he ran out of ring in which to run.

Oscar was old, weight-drained, and a part-time fighter. But Manny beat him so bad, he quit on his stool and looks unlikely to ever return to the ring. Ricky Hatton had never lost at 140 pounds. Then came Manny Pacquiao, who scored an all-time great knockout in just two rounds, flattening the "Hitman" and ending his enjoyable run as one of the sport's true elite. Cotto was in good shape, had a decent gameplan, and then just couldn't keep up. Eventually, Pacquiao wore him down and worked him over.

This is the big problem with the fight and as much as some MMA fans may want to portray this as some incredible waste of Manny Pacquiao, it's him fighting a completely legitimate challenger.  He is just so much better than everyone that it seems like a completely foregone conclusion.  It's still not that dissimilar from a fight like BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar or Georges St. Pierre vs. Dan Hardy.  Pacquiao is a special fighter and he is making good fighters look like scrubs.

A huge thing the event has going in it's favor is that there is nothing like big fight atmosphere in boxing.  I'm not saying it's better or worse than big fight atmosphere in MMA, it's just different.  And the atmosphere that this will have in the gigantic Cowboy Stadium should be crazy, or maybe it just comes across as weird and hollow.  Either way, it's something interesting.

On the not so great side of things, in true boxing fashion, the undercard is less than impressive.  In fact, The Boxing Tribune's Dafydd Thomas calls it unacceptable:

Normally, the strength of the main event will carry the PPV numbers, regardless of whoever's fighting on the undercard. But when you've got a bigger headline act fighting just over a month after, with an evenly matched dance partner, for the same amount of dollars, plus a stronger undercard, there should only be one thought in your mind if you don't have the finances. No, not going down to the local bookmakers, but save up for the stronger show.

I'm not trying to be a financial advisor, but that's logic. You'd think that Arum and Trampler would spot the weakness and strengthen it somewhat. But when has Arum put on a decent undercard? He's always been one for cutting costs and maximizing profits, showing 'The Son of the Legend' who needed banned substances to help him against Troy Rowland. But this undercard has crossed the line.

We have a "Contender" loser, two shot to smithereens fighters, an Irishman that's not once looked like a future successor to Kelly Pavlik, and a guy called Michael. That's what you're paying for.

The combat sports fan in me considers any event featuring arguably the best boxer on the planet a must-see, but the logical consumer in me can see many reasons why someone would choose to hold out for the much more compelling main event of Mayweather/Mosley and it's better undercard if you're wanting to give a boxing event a go.

Regardless, tomorrow night's main event should deliver quite a spectacular show.  Either Pacquaio continues to look like one of the most dominant fighters of all time or Joshua Clottey legitimately shocks the world.

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