Brian's Boxing Mailbag (Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey Aftermath, Wladimir Klitschko Next Weekend)
By Brian Wilbur
Greetings and welcome to the mailbag ladies and gents. On Saturday we witnessed yet another brilliant performance by Manny Pacquiao, shutting out Joshua Clottey over twelve rounds. Joshua Clottey’s instinctive fighting style is to cover up, wait for his opponent to stop punching, and then go on the offensive. The problem with using this style against Pacquiao is that Pacquiao never stops punching! Pacquiao has incredible stamina and seemingly never tires. We saw Clottey covering up for twelve rounds and Pacquiao clubbing away at his hands, arms, body, and anything else that Clottey gave him.
Clottey knew that he was losing every round but he didn’t dare open up because he feared the blazing fast counter punches that would have surely put him on his butt. Joshua did not do any favors to his reputation amongst fans by fighting to survive instead of trying to win. I hate to be cocky, but I perfectly analyzed the fight in my official prediction that you can read in the Team RSR Fight Picks posted a couple days before the fight.
I am curious to see the PPV buy rate for Pacquiao vs. Clottey, and how it compares to Mayweather vs. Mosley in May. Once again, the money that both men bring in will affect the inevitable reprising of negotiations for a fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. My guess is that Pacquiao vs. Clottey did about 800,000 buys, in addition to the very impressive live gate.
Feel free email me with your PPV buy predictions, or your thoughts/reactions to the fight.
With the Pacquiao fight over and done with, the next good match up comes up next Saturday. I am talking about the Heavyweight Championship bout between Wladimir Klitschko and Eddie Chambers. Klitschko vs. Chambers falls into the same category as Pacquiao vs. Clottey. Wladimir, like Pacquiao, is the best. Eddie Chambers, like Joshua Clottey, is a good, respectable opponent, and definitely among the best available. However this is not a fight that captures the imagination of the general public because it is a perceived mismatch.
In the case of Pacquiao, the marquee fight fell through. In the case of Klitschko, there is no marquee opponent to fight. In those tough situations, I commend both for trying to challenge themselves against rated opponents instead of tomato cans while waiting for their desired match up to come along. In this week’s first email I cover the Chambers vs. Klitschko fight, and of course, later on there is more on Pacquiao’s nice win over Clottey. Enjoy and send in your emails to be featured in next week’s mailbag.
Klitschko Shaky No More?
Wladimir has been knocked out early against Lamon Brewster and Corries Sanders, two fighters who aren’t (or weren’t) much better than the guy he is fighting next, Eddie Chambers. Yet nobody thinks that Chambers has much of a chance to do anything but get knocked out. Why is that? I think just one crack to the chin and Wladimir is looking like a drunk who’s had one too many. He’s been getting lucky.
-Kyle
Kyle,
Those losses are such distance memories at this point that Wladimir Klitschko has regained the same aura of invincibility that he had before those embarrassing KO’s. His skills are hard to ignore and he has changed his style to be less crowd-pleasing but more careful and guarding of his chin and limited stamina.
I still think that certain fighters could bring the nervousness out of Wladimir. Eddie Chambers is not that fighter though. He doesn’t have the right style. Chambers is a short, slick boxer with good reflexes. That is exactly the type of boxer that Klitschko loves to fight. He will dominate Chambers with his size, jab, and movement. Eddie doesn’t have the overwhelming power to break Klitschko’s once-questionable chin.
Sam Peter just won an IBF eliminator last week so he could potentially get another shot at Wladimir. Peter was able to drop Wladimir a few times and could potentially find some more success in a rematch. I don’t think that Peter has the skill to actually beat someone of Klitschko’s ability, but his skill set is better equipped to fight Wladimir than Chambers. A heavyweight with potent knockout power, quick hands, and the ability to slip a jab will be the kind of fighter that beats Klitschko. Unfortunately for Klitschko haters out there, I don’t see anyone in the heavyweight rankings who fits that description.
Rating The Clottey Win
Hi Brian,
The people who I was watching the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight with last night were all a little disappointed in the fight. This one was not as exciting as a usual Pacquiao fight and Pacquiao did not win by knockout. Why was this not a great fight like some people thought it would be? How do you rate this win for Pacquiao?
-Lamar
Lamar,
Manny Pacquiao threw over 100 punches per round and came forward with his typical aggression. The blame for that fight not being particularly exciting falls squarely on Joshua Clottey. Pacquiao was more than willing to engage and trade punches but Clottey was too scared; he stayed in his defensive shell even though he knew he was losing badly.
Clottey vs. Pacquiao had less action that you would expect from a Pacquiao fight. In terms of excitement I would rate this fight poorly. However in terms of accomplishment, the dominant shut out win over Clottey rates among Pacquiao’s best wins of his career. Why? Because Clottey was a full sized championship caliber welterweight who was in his prime. Manny didn’t just beat him, he dominated him from start to finish and won every round. Nobody has ever done that to Clottey and Clottey has fought an extremely high level of opposition. Considering that Pacquiao is not a true welterweight, his feat is incredible. Manny also showed off his versatility in being able to win a clear cut decision, which is Floyd Mayweather’s specialty not Pacquiao’s.
Pre-Fight Discussions (Clottey Has No Chance!)
Hey Brian,
It’s the eve of the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight and I just want to give my take on what I think will happen. It will be an easy fight for Pacquiao since Clottey seldom throws combinations (heck he seldom even punches) and is always on the defensive, and most importantly, he is slow. Pac will run rings around him landing multiple-punch combinations and be out of there before Clottey could even think of firing back. Clottey may have a good chin but that only means one thing, he would only take more punishment than the usual Pac foes.
Maybe Pacquiao can’t KO him but I think the referee or the corner would stop the one-sided fight before the final bell. If this does go the distance then it would be a very very wide unanimous decision for the Pacman. I don’t think Pacquiao could KO him with a punch though and would be very impressed if he could.
That would even make the Gayweathers more suspicious because they cant believe other people except themselves would do amazing things and they haven’t been doing something amazing since Money Mayweather’s lightweight days.
-Vinjo
Vinjo,
I was watching tape on Clottey the night before the fight and the more I watched the more I thought Pacquiao was going to dominate. I saw several things about Clottey’s game that Pacquiao could exploit.
The conventional thinking was that Pacquiao would win handily but it could be tough for Pacman because of his durability. Well, looking at the tape, I saw that he drops his hands when going to the body or throwing any kind of combination. Manny could easily take advantage of that with his straight, fast counter punches, like the kind he dropped Cotto with.
If Clottey had gone on the offensive he would have been knocked out by Pacquiao. I was starting to believe it after watching that tape before the fight, and now after watching the match I can confidently say that would have been the case. The few times that Clottey tried to get any offense going, Pacquiao would tag him with hard shots putting him back into his shell. Clottey wouldn’t dare come out of his shell because he knew what would happen.
Two Cents on Pacquiao, Floyd, Mosley, Tyson and Toney
What’s up Brian? Just had a couple thoughts and was curious what you thought. I didn’t buy the Pacquiao vs. Clottey fight. I guess Clottey is tough but who really cares if Pacquiao beat him, especially for $50 to view it? It seems that Clottey was most popular for losing to Miguel Cotto and the cheater Antonio Margarito. So Pacquiao won; big deal. I actually hoped Pac got his ass beat. The more I think about his refusal to agree to Floyd’s drug test the more it irritates me.
Pacquiao is a liar. I have to bust my ass everyday to barely survive it seems to take care of my wife and 3 kids and Pacquiao can turn down 20 million plus for a multitude of stupid reasons. How can any man turn down that kind of money? If he is on something it doesn’t make him invincible anyways. I don’t think he would be much of a different fighter at all being clean. Drugs are not going to help his technique at all. Drugs or no drugs he’ll lose to Floyd (who I can’t stand) anyways.
Another thing that pisses me off about him turning down that kind of money is if he does fight Floyd and loses, big deal. He isn’t undefeated anyways (which means so much in boxing for some reason) and he would still have all his fans and popularity and still get more multimillion dollar fights.
I do have a couple questions too. Why are people downplaying Shane’s KO of Margarito because he didn’t have his hands of stone? Loaded gloves would not improve Margarito’s alleged jaw of steel at all. Shane simply beat his ass and KO’ed him which is something nobody else has done.
On a different subject, how the hell did fat, old, loud-mouth Toney get a multiple fight contract with UFC without 1 MMA fight? He’ll do fine standing up for about 5 seconds til he’s flat on his back eating elbows or getting choked out. I hate to say it but I’m far more of an MMA fan now and I used to hate it because of the wrestling. I have several friends now that are wrestlers and fight some MMA and I appreciate their impressive skills a lot more now. They literally can beat someone with no or moderate skills in a matter of seconds. I’ve apparently been more of a “real” fight fan all this time because a real fight always ends up on the ground. And, unlike MMA, there is way too much drama in boxing, outside of the ring that is.
Speaking of a real fight. I believe it was in 1988 when Tyson busted up Mitch Green’s face outside of a club or something before their sanctioned fight. I never had any interest in boxing at all before that. That event seemed to get a lot of people’s attention. Hopefully Mike can do something impressive this time around but isn’t going to happen. He’s too old. It’s impossible to regain your youth. C-ya.
-Ackerman
Ackerman,
Pacquiao’s win over Clottey may not have had the same historical impact as some of his other wins. For example, in the wins over David Diaz, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao was going after a title in a new weight class, chasing records. Still, Clottey represented a top 5 welterweight and beating a boxer of Clottey’s caliber is always a notable achievement. Pacquiao improved his legacy and increased his lead in the pound for pound consideration with a dominant performance over a highly rated and worthy opponent.
I understand your frustration towards Pacquiao for the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight for following through. Some of your anger should be directed at Mayweather though. It is not fair to lay the entirety of the blame on Manny when what Floyd was demanding was completely unprecedented in the history of boxing and fully knowing that the testing would affect Pacquiao more than it would him. Mayweather was trying to gain a mental edge and Pacquiao’s team wasn’t having it.
As a boxing fan, I really hope that both Mayweather and Pacquiao can pull their heads out of their butts and get a deal done. Boxing fans are demanding this bout and will be sufficiently pissed off if this mega event fails to materialize. Boxing would take a serious hit and you would have every right to abandon boxing in favor of MMA if Pacquiao vs. Mayweather doesn’t happen. Because at least in the UFC, the best guys fight each other without negotiation drama.
People question the Shane Mosley win over Antonio Margarito because the bout played out drastically different than what people expected. Mosley had looked very old and deflated in his previous few fights. Mosley couldn’t even look impressive against the unskilled wild man Ricardo Mayorga. Boxing fans and experts try to explain why a fight did not play out as expected and in this particular case, the hand wrap controversy was too convenient. Even if the actual hand wraps didn’t have much of an impact, the mental distraction of getting caught red handed in the dressing room had to have played a role.
Dane White of the UFC was a boxing fan before getting involved with MMA and James Toney was one of his favorite fighters. Toney was born to fight so if he had grown up training mixed martial arts instead of boxing I am sure he would have reached the same heights in that sport. However at this point, Toney is old and far past his physical prime. Also, it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. Toney got his UFC contract on his name and reputation. And I think the reason James even wanted to go to the UFC is that his boxing career is essentially over anyway so this might be the only way he can make any money fighting.
The Tyson vs. Mitch “Blood” Green street fight indeed happened in 1988 and reminds me of the glory days when boxing was mentioned during the 10 o’clock news. As for Mike Tyson’s upcoming return to boxing, he is too old and out of shape to be taken seriously so I agree with you in that respect. I look forward to the media circus that Tyson attracts to boxing though.
Okay folks, send in those emails and come back next week!