I am not a boxing expert but I saw how Joshua Clottey, despite repeated pleas from his corner to go for broke, stayed in survival mode from start to finish. Pacquiao and just about everyone else involved in “The Event" wanted to get it on. Everyone except Clottey. Clottey was living a dream facing the man now being compared to Muhammad Ali before 51,000 fans in Cowboys Stadium. Yet he never risked falling into dreamland during the fight. He wanted to finish this rare brush with greatness with face intact and jaw still in place.
We should’ve seen the signs. During the promotional run up, Clottey smiled like a gushing fan every time he stood next to Pacquiao. If Clottey hated Pacquiao’s guts, felt he could pulverize Pacman with his bare hands and detested all the attention Manny received, he did a magnificent job hiding it. At the weigh-in 24 hours before the main event, Clottey struggled to hold back his elation. During the customary stare-down for photographers, Clottey faced Pacquiao and giggled like a schoolboy who suddenly found himself face-to-face with a long-time crush. I hoped it was all just a ruse to make Pacquiao comfortable and overconfident. Turned out the joke wasn’t on Pacquiao, the joke was on all of us who yearned to witness an epic. This was the one day in the year when a) all guys downed beer at 10 in the morning and (as a result of letter a) b) believed they coach better than Roach. Yet during an occasion when boxing pseudo-expertise is handed out like free pocket calendars in a campaign motorcade, the self-proclaimed pundits were all silent. They were all stunned to see such a huge, proud, hulking beast of a fighter reduced to a petrified soldier stuck in a fox-hole. Let’s face it. It wasn’t a fight between Pacquiao and Clottey. It was a fight between Pacquiao and Clottey’s forearms. It was as if Clottey fought with a Dallas Cowboys football helmet on his head the whole time. Pacquiao had no other choice but to dart left and right, hit whatever open target and give the Texas throng the best show he could offer given Clottey’s cautiousness. In the end, while one must admire Clottey’s self-defense, and subsequently self-preservation, I can’t help but feel a little deprived. All Clottey’s super defense accomplished was to give Pacquiao a super workout. Solar TV Analyst Brian Villoria said it best. “To have an exciting fight, you need two fighters." If I spent hard-earned money to fly to Dallas, purchase ringside tickets and drink overpriced beer, I’d be upset. But I watched in Club Filipino for free. So I’m okay. Somewhere in Cowboys Stadium, James Farias, a Texas-native we met last February, watched the fight with his buddies, ecstatic to see Pacquiao win, yet still hopeful to witness Pacquiao face Mayweather. He spent a lot to buy good seats for Pacquiao-Clottey. He’ll spend more to see Pacquiao-Mayweather. “I’d pay anything to see Mayweather lose." -
Mico Halili, GMANews.TV 
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