Dissecting Joshua Clottey

Hey Guys.. I've been watching Joshua Clottey fights over the weekend. I am so thrilled about his style and I believe Pacquiao-Clottey would be an exciting fight. Clottey loves to go toe-to-toe but is a very good counter puncher with a great defense. Josh Clottey has two primary offensive weapons -- the left hook and the right straight. He is a patient stalker waiting to unload on his opponent. He caught Zab Judah, Diego Corrales and Antonio Margarito with his perfectly timed and loaded left hooks. He used his right straight more against Miguel Cotto and Diego Corrales.

Clottey is a veteran and could be dirty at times. Miguel Cotto and Zab Judah were badly cut against Clottey. His fight against Margarito shows he intentionally wanted to butt Margarito on the head more than once!

Some background

So Pacquiao will fight again in March 14, just before his political campaigns in Saranggani kick off. Oops, Sorry about pissing you off about his political aspirations. I will now present to you his antagonist on the 14^th, Joshua “The Grandmaster” Clottey.

Now I don’t know who came up with the Grandmaster idea.. I like “The Thing” better. In reference to his solid built and chiseled body. He weighs 147 pounds on weigh ins and then tips the scale at 160 pounds and above at fight night. The dude is freaking scary if you ask me.  

Clottey is a former welterweight champion. He is a legitimate 147-pounder. And in case you have heard of the The Ring Magazine rankings, Clottey is ranked 5^th in the welterweight division. Pacquiao, Mosley, Mayweather and Cotto hold the top four positions in that order. And in case you really are a good student of  this combat sports, you will notice that the top three welterweights are also the top three best pound-for-pound fighters in the world – Pacquiao, Mayweather and Mosley.

So Clottey’s 5^th place in the ranking is nothing to scoff at. Who he fought, you’ll ask? It’s a surprisingly long list of talented and tested fighters – Carlos Baldomir, Diego Corrales, Zab Judah, Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto.  His fight record, you ask? 35 wins and 3 losses, with 20 of those wins by knock out.

How will he do against Manny Pacquiao? Let’s check him out.

Josh Clottey against Zab Judah

They fought for the welterweight championship of the world. In Zab Judah, I see a lot of Manny Pacquiao qualities. He is the smaller guy and only weighed in at 143 pounds in this fight (Manny’s last fight, he weighed 144). Judah then weighed around 147 on fight night (Manny, 148), giving up a whopping 13 pound difference against Clottey who weighed in at exactly 160 at fight time.

Like Pacquiao, Judah is a southpaw. Like Pacquiao, Judah is a speed merchant too. Like Pacquiao, Judah uses lots of different angles to unload his attack. Unlike Pacquiao though, he does not carry a lot of pop in his punches. He is more of a boxer. Pacquiao is a boxer-puncher. The similarities are limited.

Watching the Clottey-Judah fight, I saw a lot of strengths from Joshua Clottey. His favorite weapons are the left hook and the right straight. His defense is solid – a tucked-elbows turtle-like high guard. He patiently stalks his opponent while on this great defensive stance waiting to counter. Or lead when his opponent appears reluctant to attack his defense. His power also rocked Judah. His offensive attack appears to be well balanced on both to the body and to the head.

While Zab Judah boxed pretty well to negate Clottey’s strengths, he just succumbed to Clottey’s more powerful and highly accurate punches. Zab never really hurt Clottey. And while Zab employed his boxing – mostly circling away from Clottey’s straight right hand, Clottey just bulldozed his way into Zab Judah. Clottey had no respect for Judah’s punches. In the end, Judah succumbed to Joshua Clottey in the 9^th round when Zab was badly cut. The referee ruled it a headbutt. The replay showed a wicked uppercut landing right between Zab’s gloves.

While Clottey was impressive against Zab Judah, he also showed he was a nasty dirty fighter. 

How come, you ask?

Conventional boxing stance says you put your hands up to defend your head against head punches. Your body is a little open when your hands are up. No big problem really, you just push your elbow downwards to protect your ribs and abdomen when you see your opponent trying to attack your body.

OK. Clottey, being a nasty dirty veteran of the sport used this natural defense to trick Zab Judah. He ducked into Judah’s right side seemingly wanting to throw a left hook to Judah’s right side of the body. Judah reacted naturally by lowering his elbow to protect his body. See the picture below. But then Clottey used his skull to attack the now open head of Zab Judah. Punk-ass dirty, but smart!

Against Cotto:

Clottey’s latest ring encounter was against a recent Pacquiao victim, Miguel Cotto. In this fight Clottey showed he can compete against the elite of the sports. This WBO welterweight championship fight ended in a very close decision victory for Miguel Cotto.

This fight also showed fundamental flaws of Joshua Clottey. One, Clottey does not seem to have enough passion, heart and stamina to go for the WIN on the final few rounds of a very important fight. He just let Cotto take the last two rounds and gave away the fight by not fighting for it. He might have a very good defense but defense alone don’t win fights. You’ve got to throw punches!

Two, Clottey is wide open when he unloads for his counter shots. When he punches with his right, his left hand moves away from protecting his chin. When he punches with the left, the right is nowhere near where it should be to protect his head.

Cotto threw a jab, and down Clottey goes in the very first round. Clottey was caught off-balanced, but he was also caught unprotected.

 
Against Corrales
 

Joshua Clottey Vs Diego Corrales Part 2
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One of Clottey’s best performances was against the former lightweight and junior welterweight champion, Diego Corrales.  This is one heck of a toe-to-toe battle. An all out war that can be fought inside a phone booth. Clottey unloaded lots of his devastating left hooks and right straights combined with short uppercuts to outclass the lighter man. Corrales never had a chance against Clottey and he never belonged in that ring. He was outclassed.

Corrales was not a welterweight. He was also way past his prime on this fight. But we could also learn from this fight, that Pacquiao (not really a true blue welterweight) could not just stand in front and go toe-to-toe against the African ring monster. Corrales was a devastating puncher at the lower weights, not against a stronger and outstanding welterweight in Joshua Clottey.

 
Against Margarito
 

Now this was true test for Joshua Clottey’s place in the elite level. He challenged Margarito for the welterweight championship of the world.

Margarito is a tall puncher. Like Joshua Clottey, Margarito loves to trade toe-to-toe. In the early rounds, Clottey rocked Margarito with his solid left hooks. Just when Margarito will try to launch his attack against Clottey, Clottey will lead with powerful left hooks to Margarito’s head.

In the middle rounds until the end of the fight though, Margarito used his greater punch output and superior ring activity to defeat Joshua Clottey. It was said that Clottey hurt his left hand in the early rounds and only fought to survive the rest of the fight.

We again take what we could learn from this Margarito-Clottey fight. That just like the Cotto fight, better punch volume and more activity could be used to defeat Joshua Clottey.

In Summary

So how would Clottey do against Manny Pacquiao?

Winning Points:

1. Try to pressure and overpower his smaller opponent like Clottey did to Zab Judah and Diego Corrales. 
2. Use his powerful set of offense (left hook and right straights) to counter Manny Pacquiao’s attack. When Pacquiao circles to Clottey’s left away from Clottey’s right hand, Clottey should use his left hook to catch Pacquiao. Clottey should also setup his right straight to catch Pacquiao on the outside or when Pacquiao attempts to attack. 
3. Head butt Pacquiao. The last time Pacquiao was badly cut, he lost to Erik Morales. It might not be pretty, but a win is a win. 
4. Tight defense. Against a whirlwind fighter like Manny Pacquiao who punches with everything he’s got and with all the possible angles, Clottey will need his great defense to have a decent chance of countering Pacquiao’s wide range of offensive arsenal.

Losing Points:

1. He is too strong when his opponent stands with him and engage him in a toe-to-toe battle. Manny must use angles to set up his offense without being lured in fierce exchange against a much bigger man. 
2. He prides himself with his tight high guard defense. He has a lot of trust in this defense that he could just stay in the corner and defend like he did against Cotto. Pacquiao must take advantage and beat Clottey through a greater punch activity. Just throw at him and let him stay defensive most of the time. 
3. He becomes impatient against the always moving Zab Judah. He leads wide and wild trying to catch Judah. Manny has become an excellent counter puncher when his prey attacks him recklessly on the inside. Juan Manuel Marquez was dropped with a short left hook. Hatton was hopelessly lying on the center of the ring when Manny caught him with a wicked left hook. 
4. He opens himself for counter punches when he himself counters. His hands drop when punching. 
5. He tires late in the fight and he finds ways to lose his battles against elite competition. He did not battle through an injured left hand against Margarito. He gave Miguel Cotto the last few rounds of their fight to lose the welterweight championship.

I see a very competitive fight in the early rounds. Clottey has got a tremendous defense and a big physical frame that Manny needs to solve and overcome. In the middle rounds and coming into the 10^th and 11^th rounds though, I see Manny cracking Clottey’s defense and landing his power shots with greater accuracy. The damage will accumulate and the referee will see enough to stop the fight. Manny by late round stoppage. It’ll be good while it lasts.