Fire Quinito rounds up all the essential links from the Manny Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey snoozefest so you could have more time to read the latest on Katrina Halili’s case against Hayden Kho.



Gabriel Montoya, Max Boxing: “Pacquiao came out as usual, all energy and aggression. He slid left and right, in and out, looking for an opening and commencing to create them with jabs to the head and the tiny opening between Clottey’s elbows, that were held up seemingly all night in a shell defense. Pacquiao marked his territory on Clottey early. A right hook around the guard to the head. Left lead or right jab to the stomach. Right hook to the body. Over and over, Pacquiao threw combinations up and down at Clottey, who could only cover up, move forward, and take abuse as he bided his time waiting for Buddha-knows-what.”

Toff Rada, Better Late than Never: “For all intents and purposes, the ‘Event’ between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey ended at the 1:37 mark of the fourth round. It was at this point when Pacquiao unleashed a two-fisted punch, reminiscent of the legendary Filipino action star Fernando Poe Jr. Years from now, after the PacMan has been enshrined in the Boxing Hall of Fame, and Clottey largely forgotten, people will remember this bout solely because of this punch. It could even evolve into boxing's version of a ‘finishing move’, something that when you see, you know the fight's over. In basketball, this would have been the equivalent of leaping over your opponent for a dunk, or grabbing the ball midway through the shot for a block.”

Michael Rosenthal, The Ring: “Manny Pacquiao can’t look spectacular against an opponent who refuses to fight. Joshua Clottey curled up like a frightened armadillo and barely threw enough punches to win a round Saturday night at the new Cowboys Stadium. The tireless Filipino was at his most active, trying to break down the bigger man, but he couldn’t do serious damage without openings.”

Greg Bishop, New York Times: “The question lingered. When would Clottey let his hands go and unleash his superior strength and size? When would he, you know, fight?”

Bryan Armen Graham, Sports Illustrated: “Make no mistake: Clottey is one of the world's elite welterweights. This wasn't Oscar De La Hoya, a faded legend who'd outgrown the 147-pound division. It wasn't Miguel Cotto, who fought Pacquiao at a catch-weight of 145. Clottey is a full-sized welterweight with significant height and reach advantages who likely outweighed Pacquiao by 15 pounds. And the tough-as-nails Ghanian couldn't even win a round (according to two of the three judges). Pacquiao's fight plan to attack the body -- he landed a career-high 108 body shots -- was executed to perfection against stubborn opposition. ‘This is the first time I have lost a fight,’ Clottey said. ‘All my fights I lost, I never thought I lost.’”

Bill Dwyre, Los Angeles Times: “Final punch stats by the Compubox people, who and probably went home with cramped fingers, had Pacquiao throwing a total of 1,271 punches, to Clottey's 399. The main consolation for the fans was that they could tell their grandchildren someday that they spent an evening in a new palace of an arena, watching a short, stumpy man trying to chop down a tree, which didn't fall.”

So the big news over the weekend involved pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao moving on from all the drama of his aborted mega-fight with Floyd Mayweather. After Pacquiao rejected a proposed bout against junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman, his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank announced that the boxer will instead face tough welterweight contender Joshua Clottey.

Clottey last outing was a razor-thin split decision against Miguel Cotto, a bout Clottey dominated in the latter rounds. The Ghanaian is renowned for his toughness, having never been knocked down in his career never been seriously hurt in his career (he was actually knocked down in the Cotto fight), and would certainly present a unique challenge for Pacquiao. Scott Christ of Bad Left Hook is already salivating over the prospect of the bout: “Clottey is a rock-solid welterweight who has never been stopped, and I don't even recall off the top of my head ever thinking he seemed particularly hurt. He's faced a lot of different styles and done pretty well against them all, from the tall and powerful Antonio Margario to the cunning and savvy Miguel Cotto to fast southpaw Zab Judah. None of those guys are Manny Pacquiao, but Manny Pacquiao's never faced a guy quite like Clottey, either, whose defense can be impenetrable at times. Not exactly the loose counter-punching of Juan Manuel Marquez or the bull-forward style of Ricky Hatton.” At least one blogger thinks that this will be Pacquiao’s biggest challenge yet.

Arum, meanwhile, scored another coup after coming to terms with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to hold the fight in the $1.2-billion state-of-the-art Cowboy Stadium, a possibility nixed by Mayweather’s camp. Arum was schmoozing with Jones on the same night that VIPs such as George W. Bush were hanging out at the owner’s luxury suite during the Cowboys’ playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. The new facility will also be playing host to the NBA All-Star Weekend in February.

(By the way, Arum says Dubya is a big Pacquiao fan. Pacquiao’s Nacionalista Party colleagues Satur Ocampo and Liza Maza must be thrilled. First Bongbong Marcos, now this. Who’s next, Hitler?)

Not to be left out, Mayweather’s promoter, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy, also made noises about moving on as well. According to him, “Pretty Boy Floyd” is looking at a May date with Shane Mosley, to “shut up all those who are saying he's a coward.” This, of course, would still depend on a Mosley victory in his January 30 bout against Andre Berto, which is hardly a given.

These are fighting words from Mayweather’s promoter, and it remains to be seen if Mayweather will come through. The boxer has frustrated fans of the sport for ducking the best competition at the welterweight level over the last few years, skipping bouts against the likes of Mosley, Cotto, Clottey, and Margarito, to preserve his undefeated record. Will Floyd really put his record on the line against a dangerous opponent, or will he take on a scrub like Matthew Hatton or Paulie Malignaggi?

It should be noted that a late spring bout for Mayweather would still leave a fall bout between him and Pacquiao open, should the two parties opt to revisit the mega-fight. But with potentially dangerous opponents (definitely for Pacquiao), neither boxer could really afford to look that far ahead.

UPDATE: Dan Rafael of ESPN reports that it looks like Mayweather will keep the March 13 date too, to go head-to-head with Pacquiao. Bad Left Hook details why this is an awful idea, because of the lack of quality opposition for Mayweather if he does not fight the winner of Mosely-Berto.

Fire Quinito rounds up the best commentary about the fallout of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather’s failure to come to terms for a mega-fight, so you can go back to reading why Jinkee Pacquiao said "I hate Krista."

Ron Borges, Boston Herald: “Boxing’s ability to destroy its image rivals that of Tiger Woods. The only difference is boxing has more practice at it. For the past decade or so, the men who run the sport have been on a constant campaign of self-immolation, finally doing to boxing what the Mafia could not when they controlled it. They made it irrelevant in the eyes of many sports fans and even more sports editors. Yet as Bernard Hopkins once said, ‘As long as you got ghettos, you’ll have boxing,’ and so boxing has survived relentless efforts to ruin itself.”

Michael Rosenthal, The Ring: “Right now, devoted fans worldwide are depressed over the news that the March 13 showdown – between the Nos. 1 and 2 fighters in the world – apparently is off in spite of ongoing negotiations and two days of mediation. The sides simply couldn't agree on a cut-off date for blood testing. So that appears to be that. The fans have and will continue to blame the side they feel is at fault. The Pacquiao supporters lambast Mayweather for making an unreasonable demand they feel places the Filipino’s character in question. The Mayweather supporters will always ask whether taking a random blood test is really such a big deal. Whichever side you’re on, everyone eager to witness what would’ve been an enormous event has one thing in common: Profound disappointment.”

Lance Pugmire, Los Angeles Times: “The mediator who worked to strike a deal between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao today attempted to set the record straight as to why negotiations fell apart and why Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, is saying the fight is off. Mediator Daniel Weinstein, a retired federal judge who listened to the Pacquiao and Mayweather representatives all day Tuesday and continued talks Wednesday, said in a statement released by Mayweather's promoters that the fight unraveled because ‘the parties could not agree on a testing protocol acceptable to all.’ A statement by Mayweather is expected shortly, but Weinstein also noted in his statement that he wanted to correct some ‘erroneous’ news reports of why the talks crashed.”

Scott Christ, Bad Left Hook: “I am neither blaming Floyd nor Manny exclusively. Both of them and their teams have put a dent back in boxing that everyone in the sport had been working for about three years to take out. It started when Floyd and Oscar de la Hoya met in 2007, a fight that broke all the records and demonstrated to the promoters that when you work together on big fights, good things happen for the sport. More and more, detractors, naysayers and the mainstream media in general looked at boxing as a revitalized sport, where things could get done, where the mismatches and garbage main events had been at the very least greatly diminished, if not firmly cast aside. Things were happening again with arguably the oldest sport in the world. Mayweather-Pacquiao would have trumped them all. Not since Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns in 1982 had the two very best fighters in the world come together for a single showdown. And not only were they the best, they were the biggest stars, the sport's two clear money men.”

Tim Starks, The Queensberry Rules: “But there is one way in which boxing ruined itself with greed by letting Mayweather-Pacquiao fall to the wayside. By each party catering to their own selfish whims, they robbed boxing fans of the fight everyone wanted to see, a match between the two best fighters of the past decade, its two biggest stars, its two best fighters of today aligning for a rare potential showdown in the same welterweight division. These are men who so prefer to indulge their own basest desires that they would rather send a giant ‘f-you’ to their customers than set those base desires aside for a moment. They don't care what harm comes to the sport that earned them their livings, whether boxing pisses away every bit of momentum it had gained since 2007, when everyone began to realize it was a good idea to regularly have the best fighters fighting each other, to give their customers what they wanted. Immediate gratification of short-term is more important than anything. Anything.”

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported earlier today that the planned mega-fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather is off, despite last minute mediation. According to the report, Pacquiao agreed to the revised proposal, which Mayweather rejected.

Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum confirmed the news to Dan Rafael of ESPN and Steve Kim of Max Boxing. Instead, Pacquiao will reportedly be facing junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman in March. Meanwhile, various Internet sources have reported that Mayweather is looking to fight either Matthew Hatton or Paulie Malignaggi.

The news is a fatal blow to the sport, a total meltdown of Gilbert Arenas-on-Twitter proportions. Tim Starks of the Queensberry Rules puts it bluntly: “I have to consider quite seriously whether I can bring myself to care about this sport again.”

UPDATE: Kevin Iole was able to reach Pacquiao adviser Michael Koncz. “Manny’s reaction is that he’s very disappointed because he wanted to give the fans this fight,” Koncz told Iole.