Clottey chickened out

Joshua Clottey got cold feet when he stepped into the ring to face Manny Pacquiao before 50,944 fans at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, last Saturday night.

When it dawned on him that he could end up flat on his back in front of all those fans with his image magnified on a 60 foot by 170 foot video board, Clottey decided it was better to be safe than sorry.

Curiously, Clottey was a picture of confidence walking from his dressing room to the ring, dancing to an African beat on the blaring loud speakers. It didn’t seem like he lacked the confidence to put up a decent fight.

But when the first bell rang, Clottey curled into his turtle shell-defense and virtually forgot about fighting back. His goal was to survive 12 rounds on his feet, never mind if it meant sacrificing his ego.

The fans who trooped to the stadium were clearly disappointed. They wanted a competitive fight. They wanted Clottey to make good on his promise of pushing Pacquiao to the limit.

Stadium owner Jerry Jones blanketed about 60,000 seats in the upper section and put 45,000 tickets in the market for his initial venture into boxing. The price range for tickets was $50 to $700 but ringside patron seats went for over $2,500. To accommodate even more fans, standing-room-only tickets were issued at $30 apiece. In the end, the paying attendance was beyond expectations.

Jones is confident that if Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. face off in his building, he’ll bring in over 100,000 fans to set a new indoor record for a boxing match.

Clottey was never known as a lily-livered coward in compiling a record of 35-3, with 20 KOs, since 1995 - before a yellow streak appeared on his back last Saturday. He earned a dubious reputation as a gangster in the ring, a rule-breaker with no scruples. But the Ghanaian was a different fighter against Pacquiao.

* * * *

Before the fight, Clottey predicted he would wrest the WBO welterweight crown and bring it back to this nine-year-old daughter Zeenat in Ghana. “I will beat Pacquiao,” he vowed. “You watch me win this fight. I have to win this fight. Look, I’m from far away Africa. I’m not from around here (in the US). If you’re from Africa, there is always a lot of proving to do before they accept me. I’m always trying to prove a point and make everyone happy. I just want to prove I’m the best.”

Clottey probably meant he’s the best in defense because that’s almost all he showed in losing a lopsided decision to Pacquiao.

When Clottey entered the ring, he might have recalled the horrible beating he took from a bully as a six-year-old kid in his Bukom hometown.

“There was this guy beating everyone up and I thought, ‘I’ve got to fight this guy,’” he related to Matt Christie in Boxing News. “He beat me so bad and he made me vomit. I just wanted it to stop because it hurt so bad. I hated it. I didn’t understand why anybody would want to do this (boxing).”

The prospect of lying flat on his back, a victim of Pacquiao’s relentless two-fisted attack, must have evoked nightmarish memories of that incident with the bully.

Clottey, however, rebounded from the bully’s bashing and eventually, got his revenge.

Football, not boxing, was Clottey’s first sport.

“Boxing didn’t matter to me when I was young, it was all about soccer - I was mad about it and I was always kicking a ball,” revealed Clottey in the same Christie interview. “If you were to see me play, you wouldn’t believe that I was a boxer and not a soccer player. I hope to make some money from playing that in the near future. I can play good. I play in midfield. My father used to play soccer so he didn’t like it straight away when I switched to boxing but he had no choice (but to accept it). He encouraged me to get better and he could see I was good, so he cheered me on.”

Clottey, 32, left Ghana to seek greener pastures in England when he was 18 then relocated to New York in 2003.

With his unimpressive performance last weekend, Clottey now faces a bleak future as a world contender. Fans aren’t paying good money to watch a fighter defend himself without hitting back. Fans want a war in the ring, not a survival contest. Maybe, Clottey should give football a try - he could be more skillful with his feet than his hands.

* * * *

There is hope for justice in the fight game.  

Last March 9, Filipino challenger Rocky Fuentes claimed the Orient and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) flyweight title on a majority 12-round decision over Masafumi Okubo of Japan at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

It was a major upset as not too many Filipinos win on points over a hometowner in Japan. Scoring referee Brad Vocale of Australia had it 114-all but in a vote of objectivity, Japanese judge Kazunobu Asao scored it 116-114 for Fuentes. Filipino judge Ben Necessario saw it 115-113, also for Fuentes who raised his record to 25-6-2, with 15 KOs. It took a lot of guts for Asao to give his nod to Fuentes - he’s a fine example of a boxing judge who calls it the right way, not the patriotic way.

Fuentes, 24, has now won five in a row since losing a split decision to Richie Mempranum in 2007. It was Fuentes’ 12th win in his last 13 outings. Two of his six losses were to Thailand’s Kaichon Sor Vorapin. He turned pro in 2003 and joins bantamweight Malcolm Tunacao as the only Filipino OPBF titleholders today.

Of the 17 weight divisions in the OPBF, Japanese rule nine and Australia, four. The featherweight and superlightweight thrones are vacant.