<<< PEEK-A-BOO. A visibly exasperated Manny Pacquiao throws a "nutcracker punch" on Joshua Clottey, who refuses to expose his face and therefore avoided the risk of being gobbled up by the quick punching Pacman. Photo by VictorSy
SUPER EVENT
OR PEEK-A-BOO BOXING?
By DAVID CASUCO
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey title match was billed as a superfight, had all the makings of a superfight, and looked like it turned out to be a superfight.
It did not.
A lot of well-meaning boxing fans left the Cowboys Stadium in a lurch, and wondering how does Clottey's face look like. The grandmaster from Ghana showed up, all right, but throughout the 12-round bout he seemed more concerned about surviving the fight than mixing it up with the Pacman.
Clottey got $2 million paycheck by just being there, holding up his gloves, doing a peek-a-boo with the boxing dynamo that is the Pacman. At one time in the early rounds, Pacquiao had to create a "nutcracker punch" to force Clottey to engage in a wild slugfest, a vintage Pacman style that endeared him to the boxing fans and earned for him the monicker "Little Tyson."
It did not work.
The Punch-stats told the whole story: Pacquiao threw a total of 1,271 punches, to the punch-shy Clottey's 399.
Text messages I received a few minutes after the fight read: "A boxing clinic," "boring," "Clottey's head was inside a helmet." Uneventful to the rabid boxing fans, but the Pacman, although he cares about his fans, could not be happier with an estimated $15 million purse take after PPV receipts.
Although the fans who were able to see the fight inside the Cowboys Stadium, were definitely compensated with an exhilarating experience of watching a boxing match in a brand new, state-of-the-art sports arena with cutting-edge video and audio technology. Even television viewers on PPV were amazed at the $1.2-million massive structure that Jerry Jones built.
The press bus that brings the media people to the Gaylord Texan Hotel had left and the parking lot was virtually empty when Pacquiao showed up for the post-fight interview. He was obviously in a hurry because he was scheduled to do a concert, a fundraiser by a Filipino group in Dallas. He was wearing sunglasses and swarmed by his usual coterie of obnoxious gofers.
The mainstream media were curious about the Pacman's concert repertoire, one asked what would be the first song.
"The first song I am gonna sing is "La Bamba," Pacquiao told the media people, almost half of them had gone home. We learned later on that the fundraiser concert commanded a pincely sum — one hundred dollars.
Only few things were said about Floyd Mayweather. Everybody was obviously tired of it.
Then there was the usual Bob Arum's bravado that he is not going to negotiate this time if there is another Flyod-Manny plans later in November.
"Manny will crush him," Freddie Roach said.
And Pacquiao: "I want that fight. The world wants that fight. It is up to him."
In Manila, meanwhile Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said Pacquiao had united Filipinos anew as the country ventures into a new chapter in its history."Manny proved that the strenght and determination of Filipinos is a cut above the rest. "On behalf of our jubilant nation, we thank you Manny for uniting the country as it steps into a new chapter inb our history," Olivar said.
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