THERE should be a closure now to the Clottey Case.
And what was that again?
The farce that Joshua Clottey would stun the world; that was his spin in the run-up to his March 14 fight with Manny Pacquiao, remember?
He did stun us but not by knocking out Pacquiao.
How could that ever happen when, in the first place, he had only two chances: nil and none.
To Clottey’s credit, he also stunned us by putting his hands up for 36 minutes in that he was lucky he didn’t knock himself out.
Pacquiao had hit him with body shots at will, so well, but Clottey didn’t fall.
Well, that was the only shining moment for Clottey—if it can be called that.
Pacquiao was in near-flawless mode in his domination of the fight that the only mistake he committed was failing to purposely hit Clottey’s gloves for a doblete or combinacion—as in billiards.
Never mind that it wouldn’t have been considered a direct knockout had it happened.
One Pacquiao blast, maybe, into either one of Clottey’s fists and the shot could have bounced so hard into the African’s eye or cheek and a knockout might have ensued, who knows?
It was a bore, all right, but only because Clottey, losing all 12 rounds, wanted it that way.
Thanks to Pacquiao he restored order with another superb display of boxing skills punctuated by blazing fists from all barrels.
Those who continue to refuse to recognize Pacquiao’s virtuoso performance are being unkind, if not ignorant to the ways of the game.
For, wasn’t Clottey supposed to snatch Pacquiao’s WBC world welterweight crown?
In boxing, the challenger should be the aggressor all the way.
Alas, even in that department alone, Clottey failed miserably.
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(Gilbert M. Talaue and Kharmina Lorena B. Velasco of Dagupan City will share their “celebration of love” in front of their “friends and God above” at 3 p.m. on March 20 at the Green Valley Hotel and Resort, Santo Tomas, Baguio City. Writer-professor Sol F. Juvida will be one of the couple’s illustrious godmothers and godfathers. I will be there, too, because Kharmina’s lovable parents, Jun and Cathy, are my dear family even before Marcos imposed martial law in 1972. Best wishes!)
(alsol47@yahoo.com)