Pacquiao vs. Clottey: A Big Letdown on a Big Stage
Posted by Tommy Hackett on March 14th, 2010
March 13 should have been the night that we crowned a true pound-for-pound champion in boxing. We should have seen a joint effort from the sport’s two biggest promoters in Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, finally setting aside their differences to bring the fans the one bout that everyone wanted to see. Top Rank’s Manny Pacquiao vs. Golden Boy Promotion’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. would promise a unification bout at welter for boxing’s biggest ever purse, pay per view audience, and all the glory that comes with it.
But when negotiations broke down, we found ourselves watching Top Rank’s next best welter in Joshua Clottey in what felt like a subpar sparring session against Pacquiao.
So, what went wrong with this show?
OK, I’ll admit: outside of the fights, well, basically nothing was wrong. Cowboy Stadium was a beautiful stage to set a big boxing match, and it drew the third-biggest US boxing crowd of the last 50 years. But inside the ropes, just about everything felt off. Things have clearly fallen apart when the last 30 seconds of a ten round John Duddy showcase fight (seriously, when did he get so cautious?) provide the night’s biggest highlight. I have heard arguments that that moment, where Duddy smiled after enjoying the kind of toe-to-toe exchange he was once known for, was actually trumped by the trio of Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders who sang the Star Spangled Banner. These arguments aren’t without validity. I was kind of taken aback at their tight, er, harmonies.
But, then there were fights.
Clottey seemed convinced he had no chance to win, and stayed shelled for the duration of the bout, tossing about the occassional combination. Members of HBO PPV’s announce team unconscionably tried to convince the world that the one-sided “action” that developed was just that great a performance by Pacquiao. Lampley yelled “bang” repeatedly as the Filipino threw straight punches at the heavy bag before him. The crowd with which I endured the bout, who were mostly Filipino supporters of Pacquiao, mostly yelled “fraud.”
The undercard was weak. Jose Luis Castillo seemed to both attempt and accomplish nothing against Alfonso Gomez. In the best overall bout, David Diaz and Humberto Soto just seemed off in their WBC lightweight championship. Diaz was dropped twice in flash knockdowns in a bout where Soto basically did just enough. Not enough to save a show though. Neither were the final emotional moments of Duddy’s bout vs Michael Medina.
So, who’s to blame? Maybe Clottey, who never tried to engage and make the fight competitive or interesting. Maybe Bob Arum, who probably never cared about giving the fans the Mayweather/Pacquiao bout in the first place as long as he could make the same amount of money matching his “cash cow” with other fighters he promotes. Maybe Pacquiao, who set all these wheels into motion when he refused to take the Olympic-style testing which should be done across the board in pro boxing.
Or maybe all of us who spent a dime on the show, and let it happen?