Why should I purchase the Pacquiao-Clottey card?

By Chris Williams: Besides the Mach 13th main even between World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao vs. Joshua Clottey looking more and more like a gross mismatch of epic proportions, the undercard frankly stinks to the high heavens in my view. I’ve already seen four mismatches in a row involving Pacquiao being put in with old or pretty much shot fighters, but I don’t think I can stomach seeing him fight another hopelessly out classed fighter and having to pay $49.95 to see it.


Clottey’ a good fighter when put in with a nice 2nd tier opponent, but if you match him tough like against Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, Clottey losses. So why should I want to see him face an even better fighter than those guys and end up losing again for the price of $49.95.
Let’s look at what we get on the undercard to see if it would be somehow worthwhile to ignore the mismatch in the main event:

Roberto Marroquin vs. TBA – This guy’s a prospect. I have no interest in paying to see him fight.

Salvador Sanchez vs. TBA – That’s five fights that I don’t want to see. I’ve heard of the great Salvador Sanchez, but the one that will be fighting on this card has a record of 18-3-2. Somehow, that’s a little short of the original great Salvador Sanchez. For that reason, I have no interest in seeing this dude fight.

Alfonso Gomez vs. Jose Luis Castillo – Gomez is ranked #10 in the IBF and WBO, while the 36-year-old Castillo is ranked #7 by the WBC. I have no idea why Castillo is ranked at all in the welterweight division. Castillo, a former lightweight champion, looks out of his league fighting at welterweight. He was totally dominated by welterweight contender Sebastian Andres Lujan in a 10 round decision loss two years ago. Since that time, Castillo has beaten four 2nd tier opponents. I have no interest in seeing him get beaten by Gomez. Besides that, I don’t see either of these guys as potential welterweight champions now or ever. Therefore, why should I want to see them fight?

John Duddy vs. Michael Medina – I’ve seen Duddy fight on numerous occasions, and have always wondered how he gets put on television. He got torn apart by a 2nd tier fighter Walid Smichet in 2008, and recently Duddy was beaten by Billy Lyell. So why is Duddy on the Pacquiao-Clottey fight? That seems like a total waste to me. I don’t want to see this dude fight when I don’t even agree with him being ranked in the top tier. He looks like a 2nd tier fighter to me.

Humberto Soto vs. David Diaz – This is probably going to be as bad a mismatch as the main event. Soto is a great fighter, but Diaz has done almost zero since being destroyed by Pacquiao in a one-sided 9th round stoppage in June 2008. Diaz has fought once since that time, beating an old Jesus Chavez by a 10 round majority decision last year in September. Even if Diaz had stayed active since being destroyed by Pacquiao, he would likely be way over his head in a fight against Soto.

Source: boxingnews24.com