ARLINGTON, Tex. – “The Event” was promoter Top Rank’s largest happening in years – a championship prizefight featuring the worldwide phenomenon of Manny Pacquiao in a breathtaking new edifice before the largest domestic boxing audience since 1993. So as one sportswriter thought to put it, “Joshua Clottey fought like a loyal Top Rank employee.”
Much to experts’ surprise and ringsiders’ chagrin, Pacquiao (51-3-2, 32 KOs) had no trouble whatever with the tense and tentative Clottey (35-4, 21 KOs), beating him to the punch roughly 1,200 times and cruising to a lopsided decision: 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109.
Clottey – who once changed his moniker from “Hitter” to “Grand Master” and might next try “Reluctant” – surprised even knowledgeable fans with his complete unwillingness to hit until conditions were perfect. It took no expertise to know Pacquiao would never grant him such conditions, and so, after some initial nervousness, Pacquiao spent the first round keeping Clottey uncomfortable.
Then in round 2, Pacquiao began to exploit the obvious disparity in the men’s reflexes, moving casually and snapping jabs and hooks to the body. An ill-advised retreat by Pacquiao, though – hands up, chin tucked – brought life to Clottey’s hands, which by then had been dormant for four minutes. Through the fight’s opening quarter, whoever was punching was winning. That happened to be Pacquiao most of the time.
Somewhat frustrated by his inability to hook around Clottey’s shell defense in the fourth round, Pacquiao – in an uncharacteristic bit of clowning – threw a hook with both hands at the same time, resulting in a warning from the referee. Clottey, on the other hand, was far too respectful, following Pacquiao around the ring as if waiting for the other man’s approval before throwing his next punch.
At the fight’s midpoint, it was a shutout: Pacquiao 6-0. A while later, it would be 12-0.
If Pacquiao felt any psychological pressure from being stalked by a bigger man, after the opening rounds he didn’t show it. Boxing confidently and discouraging Clottey whenever he had to, Pacquiao took rounds 7, 8 and 9 as easily as he’d taken their six predecessors.
In round 10, things got interesting for just that many seconds as Clottey landed four punches in-a-row for the first time in a half hour of boxing. Then Pacquiao got serious, came out his shell and took away Clottey’s spirit yet again. The championship rounds saw no new excitement. Clottey fought as if happy to have spent 36 minutes in a ring with Pacquiao, and nothing like a challenger should.
If there was suspense at the reading of the judges’ cards it was sparked by a doubt that all three judges would give Pacquiao all 12 rounds. They didn’t, of course. End of suspense.
“I can’t believe it,” Pacquiao (modestly) said of his victory after the fight.
Neither could the rest of us, Manny, unfortunately enough.
HUMBERTO SOTO VS. DAVID DIAZ
If Mexican lightweights Humberto Soto and David Diaz wake up feeling a wee bit cheated of due affection on Sunday morning, they’ll be well within their rights. Both men gave what they had to the crowd and judges, Saturday, though neither party was paying them much mind.
In a fight significantly closer than two judges had it, Soto (51-7-2, 32 KOs) defeated Diaz (35-3-1, 17 KOs) by unanimous decision – 115-111, 117-109, 117-109 – to become the WBC lightweight world champion.
A fine indication of the Cowboys Stadium crowd’s interest in fighters not nicknamed “Pacman,” though, came at the midway point of round 2 – just as Soto scored a flash knockdown – and continued for five minutes, as the capacity crowd invoked a part of eighties sports lore, doing the wave for 10 stadium-wide swells.
Unbeknownst to many of the wavers, though, a very good fight was going on before them. Despite being the slower, less technically sound man in the ring, southpaw David Diaz was handling everything Soto hit him with and still stubbornly marching forward. Diaz’s experience – comprising many more fights at lightweight than Soto – told, as he was undissuaded by the smaller man’s accurate counterpunches.
Round 9 featured especially feral action as Diaz blasted Soto with left crosses, and Soto fired back with left hooks and uppercuts. While Soto was landing the more accurate punches, Diaz was surely getting his money’s worth from each exchange.
The next round saw an ounce of give in Soto. Diaz’s relentlessness – probably his most distinguishing trait as a prizefighter – took a bit of resolve from Soto’s legs and some snap from his punches. Combined with Soto’s evident fatigue, Diaz’s constant hustle made the championship rounds extremely close.
After embracing before the 12th and final round, Soto and Diaz then committed to a mutually brutalizing finish, using shoulders, elbows, heads and low blows to wear one another out. Diaz’s legs gave first, though, tossing him onto his knees with 10 seconds remaining in the match. That knockdown, and the one that came in the second round, combined to give Soto a victory on the one card that properly captured the fight – judge Gale Van Hoy’s, interestingly enough.
ALFONSO GOMEZ VS. JOSE LUIS CASTILLO
Whatever motivation Mexican Jose Luis Castillo had for rising to 145 pounds and then fighting anyway did not sustain him for all of 15 minutes Saturday. So his corner wisely canceled the final five rounds of his fight with fellow Mexican Alfonso Gomez – waving things off after round 5. With any luck, they’ll cancel Castillo’s future hopes of fighting, next.
Meeting Gomez (22-4-2, 10 KOs) in “The Event’s” second televised match of the night, Castillo (60-10-1, 52 KOs) began in a way that looked initially tentative and then outright sluggish. He threw few punches with authority but seemed at least partially engaged in the fight’s opening three minutes.
An exchange in the next round spoke volumes about Castillo’s chances, though. Closing space against Gomez – who’ll never have the class Castillo showed in his prime (many years ago) – Castillo got a bit too close, and Gomez simply tossed him away, a welterweight throwing a lightweight. Then round 3 saw a clash of heads that sent Castillo spinning towards the referee as if already looking for an honorable discharge.
Rounds 4 and 5 saw Gomez land right uppercuts that took far greater effect than Castillo’s counter left hooks. After dragging his feet back to the corner at the end of the fifth, Castillo made no protest when his corner stopped the match.
While you never wish to speculate about a prizefighter’s financial well-being, today, Castillo – once marked by an obsessive will to win – appears to be going through the motions merely for a paycheck. Dangerous motions, indeed. You can no longer love boxing and still hope Castillo keeps fighting.
JOHN DUDDY VS. MICHAEL MEDINA
If you weren’t sure how things might go when Ireland’s John Duddy (29-1, 18 KOs) squared off with Mexico’s Michael Medina (22-2-2, 17 KOs) in “The Event’s” first televised fight, a 10-round middleweight match, you needed look no further than the color of both fighters’ gloves: Green.
That color said Irish, and so did two judges, scoring a split-decision victory for Duddy: 96-93, 93-96, 96-93.
After starting fast, seasoning his shamrocks with chile by putting left hooks on Medina’s body, Duddy collected a pair of right-hand counters in round 3 that slowed his attack and made onlookers think that if Medina were the larger man, Duddy might be in genuine peril.
After five rounds, both guys’d had enough of jabbing and commenced to swapping left hooks and counter right uppercuts, with Duddy winning most exchanges and Medina scoring with plenty of his own punches.
By the eighth round, the hooks each man had landed on the other began to tell on the fighters’ legs, as Duddy and Medina had both slowed considerably. But in an effort to sap Duddy’s reserves further with hooks to the liver, Medina’s left glove strayed south one too many times, resulting in a point deducted from the Mexican’s tally for low blows.
Befitting their proud fighting traditions – Irish and Mexican – Duddy and Medina closed the fight winging punches without regard for defense or respect for one another’s power. The luck of the Irish prevailed, though, and Duddy escaped with his split-decision victory.
UNDERCARD
“The Event’s” final off-television match saw Fort Worth’s Arthur Trevino (5-3-3, 2 KOs) wage a sustained four-round featherweight scrap with Arizonan Isaac Hidalgo (6-5-2, 1 KO). One ringside judge declared Hidalgo the winner of every round, 40-36, while the other two saw the rounds split, turning in cards of 38-38. The official result, then, was a majority draw.
Before that, California super welterweight Rodrigo Garcia (6-0, 5 KOs) walk directly through Calvin Pitts (5-12-1, 1 KO), needing until only 2:21 of the second round to stop the overmatched Texan. It was a very limited test for Garcia, whose unblemished record was never in danger.
Local interest was piqued when two super bantamweights from Dallas – Roberto Marroquin (13-0, 10 KOs) and Samuel Sanchez (4-2-1) – touched gloves and came out fighting in Saturday’s fourth undercard match. Local interest then reached a peak when a second-round left hook from Marroquin felled Sanchez with such violence that no count ensued. Marroquin was declared the winner by TKO at 1:36 of round 2.
The afternoon’s next fight was of patronymic importance to Mexican fans if no one else, as Salvador Sanchez (19-3-2, 9 KOs) and Jaime Villa (8-8-2, 3 KOs) made an enjoyable eight-round featherweight match that featured some hooks, some uppercuts, some fouling and plenty of misses. After scoring an early knockdown, the Mexican named after a famous prizefighter, Sanchez, stopped the Mexican named after a famous revolutionary fighter, Villa – throwing left hooks to the liver till 1:09 of round 6, when Villa could not continue and Sanchez became the victor.
Before that came a featherweight bout between the Philippines’ Michael Farenas (26-2-3, 23 KOs) and San Antonio’s Joe Morales (20-13, 4 KOs), ended as a no-decision at 2:25 of the second round when an accidental collision of heads opened a deep gash over Morales’ right eye, causing the ringside doctor to prohibit further action.
Saturday’s action began with an eight-round bantamweight slugfest between Filipino Eden Sonsona (19-5, 6 KOs) and Columbian Mauricio Pastrana (35-13-2, 24 KOs). After dropping Pastrana several times in the middle rounds, Sonsona brought the match to a sudden end at 1:33 of the final round – striking Pastrana with a left cross of such authority that no count was attempted.
Announced attendance was 50,994 – the largest American crowd to see a fight in 17 years.
First bell of “The Event” rang through Cowboys Stadium at 5:20 p.m. CT.
Photos by Chris Farina/Top Rank