| 14 March 2010
When Manny Pacquiao fights, people come, and nothing illustrates this point more spectacularly than the 51,000 people who showed up to watch Pacquiao fight Joshua Clottey at Cowboys Stadium Saturday night. By all account the promotion was a resounding success and talks are already underway to bring another major fight to the home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Manny Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KOs) UD 12 Joshua Clottey (35-4, 21 KOs)
WBO Welterweight Title Fight
Scores: 120-108, 119-109, 119-109
Don’t be fooled by the lopsided scoring, this was no walk in the park for Manny Pacquiao. In fact, you would have to go back two years ago, to Pacquiao’s rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez to find “Pacman” in such a grueling fight. Clottey, a native of Ghana, refused to let Pacquiao run rough shot over him, challenging the Filipino superstar to try and crack the code of his airtight defense. Behind a high and tight, peek-a-boo guard, Clottey was able to deflect Pacquiao’s more punishing salvos and straight lefts. It was a lesson in frustration for Pacquiao, but what makes Manny so special is his ability to formulate game plans on the fly. Seeing that it would it futile to continue targeting Clottey’s head, Pacquiao opened up a can of punishment on the only exposed part of Clottey, his ribs.
But Clottey is the epitome of tough, and though he was peppered at all angles by Pacquiao, he never gave in to the thought he was outmatched. In fact, Clottey would have moments of success throughout the fight as his hard right hand and uppercut found their home on Pacquiao’s head. Clottey seemed to be the stronger fighter, and his shots took a visible toll on Pacquiao. But despite Clottey’s hard shots and granite chin, Pacquiao’s speed was the most impressive element on display Saturday night. Pacquiao is a phenomenon of athletic prowess and his speed and angles allowed him to throw and land his shot without rest for the entirety of the fight.
It was a solid win for Pacquiao who should receive some serious props for handling Clottey with flair and pizzazz. Pacquiao will go down in history as an all time great, and his performance Saturday night part of the reason why.
Humberto Soto (51-7-2, 32 KOs) UD 12 David Diaz (35-3-1, 17 KOs)
WBC Lightweight Title Fight
Scores: 115-111, 117-109, 117-109
Leading up to their title fight Saturday night, Diaz and Soto made it clear to the world that they were in fact good friends. When the two met up Saturday night, it was abundantly clear that they were friends; the lack of sustained action proved that. What made this fight such a disappointment is that both Soto and Diaz are action fighters, fighters who typically give fight fans reason to cheer. That is unless you pair them together. Their fight resembled more of an intense sparring session sans headgear. There were some moments of action, typically at the last thirty seconds of a round, and Soto did manage to floor Diaz in the first round, but outside of that the fight left little for us to remember.
Alfonso Gomez (22-4-2, 10 KOs) TKO 5 Jose Luis Castillo (60-10-1, 52 KOs)
WBC Continental Americas Welterweight Title Fight
Official time of the stoppage: 3:00 round five.
The general thought shared by fight fans and media type going into this fight was that Castillo was clearly on the downside of his career. Saturday night this became fact. Nothing against Gomez who came into this fight in tremendous shape and with a real edge and was solid in beating Castillo to the punch throughout the fight, but this had more to Castillo being shot than Gomez dominance. Castillo just didn’t look like he wanted to be in the ring anymore, the sad part of this realization was that it was in the first round of his fight with Gomez. After absorbing punishment over five rounds Castillo quite on his stool. At the post-fight press conference Castillo announced his retirement. Castillo has had a great career in the ring, and will go down as a true warrior, but thankfully he will not fight anymore.
John Duddy (29-1, 18 KOs) 10 SD Michael Medina (22-2-2, 17 KOs)
Scores 96-93, 96-93, 93-96
The less said about this fight the better. Over ten rounds, Duddy and Medina put on a pretty lackluster affair. It just seemed like neither fighter wanted to be the aggressor, and in Duddy and Medina, you don’t have skilled counterpunchers. The fight seemed to lack an twinge of excitement, which is sad as both fighters can make some action in the ring. With Duddy’s win, expect a showdown with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in the fall.
Robert Marroquin (13-0, 10 KOs) TKO 2 Sammy Sanchez (4-2-1)
Official time of stoppage: 1:36 round two.
In a battle of young Dallas fighters, Marroquin displayed why he make be the next great fighter from North Texas. Marroquin made a statement with his destruction of Sanchez, a notoriously tough fighter. In fact, Sanchez is a fighter who often gives his opponents hell, throwing a dizzying number of punches in any given round. However, Saturday night Sanchez seemed a bit gun shy. After some tentative moments, Marroquin established firm control, dropping Sanchez in the first round, and then finishing the job in the second when two right hands put Sanchez on the seat of his pants and out of the fight. It was a huge win for Marroquin, and one that surely will catapult his career to the next level.
In other bouts:
Arthur Trevino (5-3-3, 2 KOs) 4 MD Isaac Hidalgo (6-5-2, 1 KO)
Scores: 38-38, 38-38, 36-40
Rodrigo Garcia (6-0, 5 KOs) TKO 2 Calvin Pitts (5-12-1, 1 KO)
Official time of stoppage: 2:21 in round two.
Salvador Sanchez (19-3-2, 9 KOs) TKO 6 Jaime Villa (8-7-2, 3 KOs)
Official time of stoppage: 1:09 in the sixth
Joe Morales (20-13, 4 KOs, 1 NC) No Contest Michael Farenas (26-2-3, 23 KOs, 1 NC)
Clash of heads in the first.
Eden Sonsona (19-5, 6 KOs) TKO 8 Mauricio Pastrana (35-13-2, 24 KOs)
Official time of the stoppage: 1:33 in round eight.
(Photo credits: Edward Garza)
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