{"id":1418,"date":"2010-03-03T00:02:13","date_gmt":"2010-03-03T05:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=1418"},"modified":"2010-03-03T00:02:13","modified_gmt":"2010-03-03T05:02:13","slug":"welterweight-wars-manny-pacquiao-%e2%80%93-joshua-clottey-floyd-mayweather-jr-%e2%80%93-shane-mosley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=1418","title":{"rendered":"Welterweight Wars: Manny Pacquiao \u2013 Joshua Clottey & Floyd Mayweather, JR \u2013 Shane Mosley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Geno McGahee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Manny Pacquiao, 50-3, 38 KO\u2019s, Joshua Clottey, 35-3, 20 KO\u2019s, Floyd Mayweather, JR., 40-0, 25 KO\u2019s, and Shane Mosley, 46-5, 39 KO\u2019s, all come together in the near future in showdowns that will shape the future of boxing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On March 13th, we have the return of Filipino national hero, Manny Pacquiao, as he defends his WBO Welterweight Crown against the challenge of Joshua Clottey.\u00a0 The boxing fans watched as the proposed and nearly signed contest between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather, JR., disintegrated.\u00a0 It got dirty as steroids allegations against Manny surfaced from Team Mayweather.\u00a0 Manny countered with a lawsuit and opted out of the fight, electing to take on the challenge of Clottey.<\/p>\n

In this welterweight foursome, Clottey is the forgotten man.\u00a0 He isn\u2019t much more than \u201cthe opponent\u201d in the estimation of most and many writers are now looking ahead to Pacquiao facing the winner of Mosley \u2013 Mayweather.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that the fans realize the incredible threat that the former IBF Welterweight Champ poses to the Pacman.<\/p>\n

How Clottey Beats Pacquiao<\/strong><\/p>\n

Clottey will have to start earlier than usual to avoid losing a close decision, which seems like the most likely scenario going into this fight.\u00a0 In 2007, he took on Diego Corrales, another fighter that was moving up and gave him a systematic beating, winning a wide decision.\u00a0 Pacquiao is a better welterweight then Corrales was, but the standard has been set.\u00a0 This is Clottey\u2019s division.\u00a0 He has been there the majority of his career and will be motivated not to lose to a smaller man.\u00a0 This is the same position that Bernard Hopkins was in when he faced off against smaller man, Felix Trinidad, in 2001.\u00a0 He stopped Trinidad.\u00a0 This is what Clottey hopes to do and it will be what he will do to win this fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clottey has a good punch but he will have to be more aggressive as the rounds go by in order to get the upset TKO win.\u00a0 He must stay behind the defense and start backing Manny up.\u00a0 He has to make Pacquiao realize that he is the smaller man and not just stand there and wait for something to happen.\u00a0 Miguel Cotto controlled Pacquiao in the first round of their fight, but could not adjust when Manny made his adjustments.\u00a0 Clottey must control the fight with his jab from the get-go and keep coming forward, using the consistency which has brought him so much success, leading to a late round TKO.<\/p>\n

How Pacquiao Beats Clottey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the lack of marquee value, Clottey is a much tougher opponent for Manny then Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, or Miguel Cotto.\u00a0 This is, arguably, the biggest test in the career of Manny.\u00a0 To come out victorious, he has to use his straight punches, which seem to be the punch that gives Clottey trouble.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that the hooks of Manny will work that well.\u00a0 He needs to use movement and the punches right down the middle.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that he will be able to stop Clottey, but he could outwork him, taking a decision.<\/p>\n

Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Manny is so confident right now that it is hard to see him losing to anyone and with Freddie Roach in his corner, you have to assume that he is coming with a strong game plan to come out with a victory, most likely by decision.\u00a0 Pacquiao will take an early lead, have some scares down the stretch, but come out with a win in the 115-113 range with claims from the Clottey camp that they were robbed and many siding with them.<\/p>\n

On May 1st, Floyd \u201cMoney\u201d Mayweather finally faces off with long time rival \u201cSugar\u201d Shane Mosley.\u00a0 It was the best option for both men, as Floyd\u2019s mega bout with Pacquiao fell apart, and Andre Berto backed out of his showdown with Shane.\u00a0 They were left without opponents and found each other, making for a very exciting fight, on paper at least.<\/p>\n

How Mosley Beats Mayweather<\/strong><\/p>\n

At 38 years old, the lightweight turned light middleweight champion, Mosley, is beyond his better days, but you wouldn\u2019t know it from his destruction of Antonio Margarito in his last fight.\u00a0\u00a0 You may know it from his performance against the strong yet limited Ricardo Mayorga, where he scored a final round stoppage in a fight that was even at the point of the stoppage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The victory over Margarito may be misleading.\u00a0 What was Margarito without the loaded gloves?\u00a0 Maybe that was the key to his success in boxing and Mosley exposed a mediocrity.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not sold that Mosley has a lot left.\u00a0 He is still very strong and has an iron chin, but his reflexes are not as good as they once were and he might be a few steps too slow to beat Mayweather.\u00a0 BUT there is a ray of hope.\u00a0 Mosley, for what he lacks in youth, he makes up for in ring smarts and ambition.\u00a0 He will have to press the fight and work hard in order to stop Floyd, which should be the goal. He cannot make this a chess game with Floyd.\u00a0 An aggressive Mosley that is trying to win by KO is the one that he needs to be come fight night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How Mayweather Beats Mosley<\/strong><\/p>\n

Floyd is a defensive expert and has great timing.\u00a0 He is undefeated, left the sport to pursue some other things, returned and looked like he didn\u2019t miss a beat, battering Juan Manuel Marquez and taking a decision.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have many weaknesses.\u00a0 To beat Mosley, he only has to fight as he normally does.\u00a0 He adapts to any style.\u00a0 He may have to throw harder punches to keep Shane in his place, but if it\u2019s not broke, don\u2019t fix it.\u00a0 Mayweather should box, be cautious, and build up points.\u00a0 He won\u2019t stop Shane, but he could and should win a decision clearly when the dust settles.<\/p>\n

Prediction<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a no brainer, really.\u00a0 Floyd is too sharp at this point to lose.\u00a0 Barring any big punch surprising him, I think we can bank on a Floyd UD by scores of 117-111 or 118-110.<\/p>\n

These two bouts should once again put Manny and Floyd on a collision course and the money will be greater and the demand will be larger and we will eventually see the two in the ring punching it out for pound for pound supremacy.<\/p>\n

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By Geno McGahee Manny Pacquiao, 50-3, 38 KO\u2019s, Joshua Clottey, 35-3, 20 KO\u2019s, Floyd Mayweather, JR., 40-0, 25 KO\u2019s, and Shane Mosley, 46-5, 39 KO\u2019s, all come together in the near future in showdowns that will shape the future of boxing.\u00a0 On March 13th, we have the return of Filipino national hero, Manny Pacquiao, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,153,267,409,477,562,650],"class_list":["post-1418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-champions","tag-floyd-mayweather","tag-joshua-clottey","tag-manny-pacquiao","tag-pi","tag-shane-mosley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}