Joshua Clottey: ‘I’ll Cut Off The Ring’ Against Manny Pacquiao
Filed under: WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, HBO, Showtime, IBO
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ARLINGTON, Texas — During January’s kickoff ceremony for the Manny Pacquaio-Joshua Clottey (Pacman next!) fight slated for this Saturday at Cowboys Stadium, team owner Jerry Jones gave Pacquaio jersey No. 3; Clottey (Pacman next!) was given No. 13.
That number, by the way, just so happens to be the same as the date of Saturday’s bout, which could just work out to be Clottey (Pacman next!)’s lucky day.
“You know, it’s a wonderful jersey. I have a friend who always uses No. 13,” Clottey (Pacman next!) said during a press conference Wednesday. “It’s not bad luck. You know? I don’t know anything about bad luck.”
By now, you’ve heard it all before — the many travails of Clottey (Pacman next!)’s boxing career which threatened to keep him a relative unknown destined for opponents’ status rather than a man who may now be on the verge of superstardom.
There are the losses to former world champions Carlos Baldomir, Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, respectively; a mysterious head butt disqualification call; two hand injuries in a fight that he led; and a disputed decision even as the winner’s face looked as if it had gone through a meat grinder.
There also was Clottey (Pacman next!)’s surrendering the IBF welterweight (147 pounds) title he won against Zab Judah to take the Cotto fight, which he ultimately wound up losing.
Top Rank Promotions publicist Lee Samuels described distraught Clottey (Pacman next!) as having a look of “utter despair” following that June loss to Cotto.
And even after that, there were two lucrative bouts with world champion Shane Mosley and former world champion Carlos Quintana — each of which fell through.
“When we were going to do the Clottey (Pacman next!)-Shane Mosley fight last December at the Staples Center, everybody was talking about how tough and how close of a fight that was going to be,” said Bob Arum, CEO of Top Rank, which promotes Clottey (Pacman next!) (35-3, 20 knockouts), standing in the lobby of the Gaylord Texan Hotel, in Grapevine, Tex. “And believe me, as I’m standing here with you, it was going to be a close fight.”
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