Clottey to take fight to Pacquiao

DALLAS – Manny Pacquiao won’t need to run after Joshua Clottey.

In fact, it’s the challenger from Ghana who might end up chasing the Filipino inside the ring on Saturday before an expected sellout, star-studded crowd at the Cowboys Stadium.

That’s what he said. That’s what he intends to do.

“I will let him fight and try to beat me. I really want to see how he fights. I will make him want me. That’s my game plan,” said Clottey in his thick African accent during Wednesday’s press conference.

Clottey faced the media for close-up interviews right after the press conference, and on the other end of the stage Pacquiao did the same, fielding questions, mostly old ones just seeking new answers.

“I’m not going to back up. I’m not going to go backward. I’m going to stay in there. Wherever he goes. I’ll cut off the ring,” said Clottey, who thinks of himself as an unbeaten fighter despite his 35-3 record.

He said his losses to Carlos Baldomir, by disqualification due to headbutts, and to Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, by decisions that could have gone either way, would or should have been avoided.

By putting up a fight from start to finish, he said that won’t happen on Saturday.

“Against Cotto I thought my corner was telling me I was leading,” he said.

But against Pacquiao, whom he described as “a very good fighter,” Clottey already knows what to do.

“I’ll cut off the ring. I’ll make him fight. I want him to fight for the first time,” said the boxer who wants to become the first to beat Pacquiao in nearly five years, and yes, make a bigger name for himself, his country, his family.

He said Pacquiao has the tendency to throw “a thousand punches” and vowed to “block a thousand punches.”

“I’m a really true welterweight. Big for that matter. He’s a smaller guy and can throw a lot of punches. I connect punches. I’ll make sure that if I throw a few, it’s going to connect, and I’m going to cause damage. I believe in that,” he said.

Clottey is the bigger one, an inch or two taller and longer in reach, and with muscles ready to pop. With his skin color, like that of dark wood, he even looks tougher. He’s never been knocked out before.

Pacquiao, said his trainer, Freddie Roach, is going for the knockout, but Clottey said that won’t happen.

“Manny Pacquiao is a very good fighter, but he’s fighting with a real welterweight – no catch weight, no nothing. I’ve always felt like I’ve never, ever lost a fight, that’s what I always say. And I have never gotten beat up.

“I’ve never felt none of my opponents punches before. I want to see if I’m gonna feel Manny Pacquiao’s punches. Call me crazy, but I just want to see that,” said Clottey.

Notes: Yes, it’s Arnel Pineda, the Filipino lead singer of the iconic rock band Journey who will sing the Philippine national anthem on Saturday. Cris Aquino, the perennial flag-bearer in Manny Pacquiao fights, said Pineda wanted the role a lot of people would die for. And he’s got it... Jinkee Pacquiao was among those who attended the final press conference at the Cowboys Stadium, and was joined by his twin sister Janette and close friend Trisha Versoza. She said she’s confident of another victory for Pacquiao and before a television camera she and her friends, also known as Team Jinkee, chanted the boxer’s name...The boxing commission, according to sources, wants Pacquiao to get rid of his goatee in time for the fight, but the world’s greatest boxer is not about to do that. “Kung sabihin ko kaya na ayoko lumaban kung ipapaputol nila ito? (What if I said I won’t fight if they want me to cut it off?),” he was quoted as saying... Thursday will be the last day of workout for Pacquiao, and everything seems all set for Friday’s official weigh-in. Pacquiao, his trainers say, will be inside the limit of 147 before he tips the scales, while Lenny de Jesus, Clottey’s trainer, said his boxer is already at 147, a little too early perhaps.