Ringside with Raymundo 03.13.10: Pacquiao v. Clottey Under ‘The Big Lights’
Posted by Raymundo Dioses on 03.13.2010
Thoughts on tonight's welterweight showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey. Plus, is Devon Alexander on his way to being "Great"? These thoughts and more on this week's Ringside with Raymundo.
Photo by Chris Farina / Top Rank
To the casual fan, boxing begins its year March 13th with the Texas showdown between Manny Pacquiao, (50-3-2, 38KO) and Joshua Clottey (35-3, 20KO) for the WBO welterweight title.
To the more seasoned fan, boxing has already started courtesy of some nice fights televised by ESPN's ‘Friday Night Fights', Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions monthly series, and the second weekend of March serves only as the biggest fight early in this already active year.
In either case, Pacquiao and Clottey will do battle in a newly erected Dallas Cowboys Stadium in front of 40,000 plus fans and millions watching around the world on pay per view.
The fight is the first of two big welterweight matches in the span of seven weeks, as Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley are expected to hook up on May 1 in Las Vegas.
Much has been written on the Clottey/Pacquiao match, with the main themes in Pacquiao's case being why he didn't take a test to confirm he hasn't used PED's, and in Clottey's case well; why is he fighting Pacquiao?
On the PED issue, the fact remains this: the allegations stemmed from the mouth of Floyd Mayweather Sr; the Golden Boy Promotions Team allegedly hopped on board (Richard Schaeffer, Oscar De La Hoya); and Floyd Mayweather Jr. expressed his doubts and made a call for Olympic style testing that halted a proposed match between himself and Pacquiao. (Kind of reminds you of that game ‘Telephone', right?) Pacquiao has since filed a defamation lawsuit and there has yet to be any physical evidence linking Pacquiao to performance enhancing drugs.
On Clottey, it has been written that he is an inferior opponent to Pacquiao, seemingly a tailor-made fight for Pacquiao in the sense that Clottey fades late in fights. The only trait critics of Clottey seem to give is that he has never been stopped in a professional fight and that he is a big welterweight. (Hey, that's still more of a shot than they give Buster Douglass)
The fight this weekend will begin the first of two scheduled fights to be held in a major league sports setting. Even though the squared circle has been showcased at the Staples Center in Los Angeles 20,000 fans strong, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum has bigger venues in his sights, as Pac/Clottey will be the first boxing match in the new Cowboys Stadium in Texas, and is expected to draw 40,000 or more, double the amount of adoring fans than at the Staples Center or MGM Grand.
In June, Arum will pit his fighter Miguel Cotto in a pre-Puerto Rican day parade fight against Yuri Foreman at the new Yankee Stadium in New York.
In a little less than two months, Top Rank will bring live fighting to major sports venues from Dallas to New York, and barring a decent crowd in the Bronx, Arum will have provided 80,000 plus fans with a night to remember.
Regardless of if the fight this weekend will be competitive or not, it will serve as what is hopefully a new era in boxing: boxing under ‘The Big Lights'.
Alexander well on his way to ‘Great'
It was amazing to see how well Devon Alexander performed this past weekend against Juan Urango.
I was sitting ringside at a recent ‘Friday Night Fights' show and talking with some writers about upcoming fights, and Alexander came up. The writer I was talking to thought Urango would take it, but I told him, ‘I don't know, Alexander is pretty gifted.'
Just then, an ESPN crew member not to be named, who was listening to our conversation turned around and said, "Urango's winning that fight." I told him the same thing, and I thought Alexander could not only beat Urango but possibly stop him.
Both of them looked at me like I just went ten rounds with the late Arturo Gatti and was saying something that even i couldn't really believe.
Well believe it!
Alexander fought a beautiful fight from start to scratch, early on being more the aggressor than Urango is known for, keeping a consistent and solid jab that was highly effective throughout, sliding in and out of danger and landing a powerful uppercut that led to the end of the night.
It was a gem of a fight, and one that Alexander and Co. can look back on and be proud of for sometime.
Alexander is the goods. He proved he can be competitive against elite competition and that he can close the show.
Although the media and fans are clamoring for a Devon Alexander/Timothy Bradley match up, I expect Alexander to take on Zab Judah.
Judah stuck his nose in the business ala' Shane Mosley and told the crowd and camera that "everyone knows who the king of St. Louis is", in reference to his win over Cory Spinks. Alexander rightfully said that Judah is the past and he is the present, yet I see Alexander's promoter, you know him, the guy with the larger than life hair and multi-national mini-flags, will create a hometown fight for Alexander prior to facing Bradley.
It is a smart business move for King as well as Alexander, as it provides a decent pay day for the upcoming Alexander, a chance to fight in front of his hometown and defend his titles in a less risk, higher reward bout against a faded veteran in Judah, and lets face it, a Bradley bout will still be there because well, there is no line of light-welterweights hoping to fight Bradley.
It was amazing to see how well Devon Alexander performed this past weekend against Juan Urango. 
