I’m sure you also know why Pacquiao didn’t KO Clottey

By Al S. Mendoza

OK, I know, I know.

I goofed.

I said Manny Pacquiao would knock Joshua Clottey out.

As things turned out, Pacquiao failed to put away Clottey.

I was not the only heart-broken soul that day but also the 50,994 spectators who jostled their way into the Cowboys Stadium, a lavish display of ostentatiousness as it cost billionaire Jerry Jones $1.2 billion to build.

Still, it was my fault.  I had expected too much from Pacquiao – as I always did each time he fought.

But let me just explain?

I forgot that Clottey had the option not to fight.

That’s where the trouble all began.

He took that option and everything fell apart.

This is still a free world, anyway.

No one can stop one from exercising his freedom of choice.

Not even Lenny de Jesus, Clottey’s trainer.

Not once, not twice, not thrice, but many times did De Jesus implore on Clottey to fight – to take risks, if necessary.

“Hey, we aren’t winning any round,” De Jesus told Clottey after five rounds.  “You gotta fight.”

Clottey took no heed.

After seven rounds, De Jesus repeated his plea:  “You gotta take risks.  Throw punches.”

Clottey took no heed.

He appeared bent on disobeying De Jesus all fight long.

Maybe, if De Jesus were surnamed Jesus, Clottey might have reconsidered?

He is God-fearing, I was told.

If De Jesus had walked out of the fight as early as the 7th round, he would have been justified.

For, what use would a trainer-coach be if all he gets is a blank stare from his ward while firing instructions in-between rounds.

It’s like seeing Phil Jackson giving last-minute instructions in an NBA championship game to Kobe and the Lakers with their backs turned on him.

On the other side of the arena during the Pacquiao-Clottey non-fight, the scene was the complete opposite.

“Watch out for his left foot,” Buboy Fernandez warned Pacquiao.  “Clottey seems bent on stepping on your right foot.”

Pacquiao obeyed like a doberman.

And Buboy is merely the assistant trainer in Team Pacquiao, Freddie Roach being the chief trainer.

This was not the first time my crystal ball failed me.

In the second Pacquiao-Barrera fight in 2006, I also said Pacquiao would knock Barrera out.

That’s because Pacquiao stopped Barrera in the 11th in their historic 2003 bout wherein it was only me (ahem!) who had correctly predicted a Pacman victory among many sportswriters polled in that fight.

Alas, in their rematch, all Barrera did was run and hide, handing Pacquiao a unanimous decision victory on a silver platter.

That was highway robbery of the first order.

Barrera was justified because he got badly licked by Pacquiao in 2003?

And who said a fighter is duty-bound to mix it up with his foe?

So, Clottey, from Ghana, wasn’t only scared of Pacquiao when they met that’s why he kept blocking and not fighting.

He also had Barrera in mind in that fight – obviously the Mexican was his idol.  Not his retired compatriot Azumah Nelson, the greatest Ghanaian boxer ever.

Clottey chapter closed.

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