Hagad: A no-contest

WINNING and losing aside, yesterday’s championship bout between Manny Paquiao and Joshua Clottey showed the world who the real boxer is. Clottey had the fearsome physique of a champion, the skills of one who can be on top of the world –but he’s no boxer. Clottey lacked the desire, the hunger to win. He had no heart.

As a world champion in seven weight categories and after having won fifty fights, Manny Paquiao had nothing more to prove to the world. He was already conceded as pound-for-pound the best boxer in the world, he has challenged and defeated the cream that the world and Mexico had to offer. If he retired on these laurels, or even if he only put up token training during fights after Miguel Cotto, fight fans would have understood and would not take it against him.

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But watching him train for the fight against Clottey, and seeing his condition during yesterday’s fight, Manny Paquiao was just about as hungry and just as motivated to win the contest as he was when he was only a challenger during his first championship fight years ago. The stories about him begging Coach Freddie Roach to let him run more miles than programmed, to allow him more rounds of training in the ring than normal, and to let him go at the mitts some more, and then even more, shows us the mark of the greatest. Muhammad Ali was like that; Michael Jordan was also like that and so was Paeng Nepomuceno, Halls of ‘Famer all. The hunger to excel never dies.

Joshua Clottey was of a lesser mold. He had what it takes to bring the fight to Paquiao, maybe even knock him out with one solid blow. Just a cursory look at his huge frame proves it.

But Clottey was afraid, not of Manny Paquiao but of the thought that his reputation as a boxer who has never been knocked out might get punched out in Texas. The desire to win was not with him. He did not hunger for the championship. He did not desire a “pound-for-pound” crown. He was satisfied with showing that he could last 12 rounds with Manny Paquiao, and earn $1.5 Million Dollars in the process. Joshua Clottey was a disappointment. He should not have been part of “The Event”. He was a no-contest.