A walk in the park for Pacquiao

By Al S. Mendoza

THIS one is as fearless as it can get:  Manny Pacquiao will win it so easily you’d think he never had a foe at all.

It will be by knockout.

It can happen in the first, second or third, or fifth, ninth or 12th.

Pacquiao would be so damned good, too deadly a warrior, he could end it in Round 1 if he wants to.

No way Joshua Clottey could pull this one out of the fire.

The poor dude from Ghana was doomed the minute he signed the dotted line for today’s fight against Pacquiao.

Oh, yeah, they’re pitted at the Cowboys Stadium in Dallas (Arlington), Texas.

Pray Cowboy Pacman had a sound sleep last night or he’d shoot his prey in-between-the-eyes on sight.

Said in another way: Pacquiao could knock Clotteyy out right in the first round!

I’m not kidding.

The only way Clottey could evade dreamland is to see Pacquiao’s two hands tied behind the champ’s back.

For, even with just one hand in harness, Pacquiao will still be so destructive he can drop Clottey for good with a single swing.

OK, you say Clottey has had 20 knockouts in his 35-3, win-loss record.

You know who those 20 souls were?

All part of the hapless folk in Ghana – mostly unemployed.  The employed among them were mere ice-drop vendors and gasoline boys.

After 20 straight wins since he turned pro in 1995 at age 18, Clottey finally fought someone with a name in 1999: Carlos Baldomir of Argentina.

Baldomir was not really the Real One.  He was a semblance of a true beak-buster.

You know what happened?

Clottey had been unmasked, his worth as a boxer not really world-caliber.  Rattled and terrified, he was disqualified in the 11th round for two head butts.

He rebounded somewhat from that embarrassment, collecting 14 straight wins to earn a shot against Antonio Margarito – Clottey’s second test on the world stage.

Clottey lost to Margarito on points.

He next met Miguel Cotto, the one Pacquiao battered into submission for a 12th-round TKO win for Pacman last November.

Clottey had lost on points, too.

Happily for Clottey, that narrow loss to Cotto made him the hands-down substitute for Floyd Mayweather Jr. when talks of a Pacquiao-Mayweather mega-fight bogged down.

Against Pacquiao today, Clottey would be so overmatched I implore God to protect Clottey from harm against Pacman’s fistic bombs.

I hate to say this but Clottey, Pacquiao’s 56th opponent, would be so totally outclassed he’d rue this day for the rest of his life.

If Clottey would survive today being Pacquiao’s 36th knockout victim, it was by Dear God’s design.

For, at times, God is also partial.

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