Jeff Pryor takes a look at Manny Pacquiao's victory last Saturday night over Joshua Clottey.

There was something a bit pretentious about the way Joshua Clottey laboriously danced his way to the ring on Saturday night. In a way it summed up my feelings about the Ghanian fighter, one that I have been loathe to appreciate for much of his time in the relative spotlight.

Clottey seemed to think he's pretty special, that he'd somehow earned our support, that he ought to be given the benefit of the doubt in every case. He'd never lost he said, and had an excuse for every narrow defeat and every missed opportunity. Tonight the bigger, stronger, fighter was to make good on his claims of misbegotten woe and turn his fortunes around.

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By Lee Payton

Fifty thousand fight fans showed up to see the #1 fighter in the world do his thing, and while the fight card did not live up to expectations Manny Pacquiao gave the people everything he had, as always.

The fact that the under-card was dull meant little to a crowd that started the celebration early. They came to see Manny, but this promotions was just about as much about the venue as the fight itself. Jerry Jones' billion dollar stadium in Dallas gave the people something spectacular to take in, even when there was little going on in the ring. I'd probably give the entire card a C, but haven't heard much complaining from anyone who was there.

The star of the show gave us all a few more "did you see that?" moments against a guy who has made a career out of making very good fighters look ineffective and ordinary. But the Filipino icon is better than very good. In fact, the "great fighter" tag is no longer good enough. This is a once in a lifetime pugilist we're looking at.

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Andrew Fruman takes a look at last night's welterweight showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey.

Set in front of over 50,000 spectators at the new state of the art Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, the welterweight contest between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey was called The Event, but the battle fell far short of its lofty billing.

Don’t blame the Filipino marvel for the lack of fireworks though.

Pacquiao did his thing, darting in and out, throwing lightning fast punches in bunches, and gradually upping the intensity as the bout wore on. But, it takes two agreeable partners to make for a good scrap, and Clottey just didn’t take the kind of chances required to give the fight some desperately needed life.

What was so frustrating to the neutral observer hoping to see an entertaining fight was that Clottey had success when he let his hands go. He was accurate, landing some decent uppercuts, some nice right hands, and when he did go to the body, he often found the mark.

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Michael Nelson takes a look at tomorrow night's welterweight showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey.

Sparring issues. Trainer problems. Rinky dink gym. Not an ideal situation going into Cowboys Stadium to lock horns with the best fighter in the world.

But that's what Joshua Clottey is faced with Saturday night. And he'll be going up with a man who easily disposed of Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto within a year. Iconic figure Manny Pacquiao, a fighter proven to have boundless energy and transcendent power.

Clottey is not without his advantages though. He should come into the ring close to 15 pounds heavier than the Filipino star, which essentially pits a middleweight against a welterweight. And there are a number of ways Clottey can make full use of his size.

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Michael Nelson takes a look at the the strengths and weaknesses of Joshua Clottey, and assesses why the Ghanaian welterweight poses the toughest challenge for Manny Pacquiao since Juan Manuel Marquez.

While Clottey's unfulfilled potential may have some underrating his ability, the reputation that he finds a way to lose has legs underneath it; he has three losses in fights he appeared to have the upper hand in.

Against Carlos Baldomir, he was disqualified in a bout he was winning handily. Many observers had him ahead four rounds to nil against Margarito before going long stretches without offering resistance to Antonio's torrent of punches. And he took his foot off the pedal against a reeling Miguel Cotto last June.  The Ghanaian's theatrical reactions to getting fouled - many of them displayed against Cotto - doesn't win him many fans either.

But none of that changes the fact that he's a superb talent. And he has strengths that will make him far more competitive than Cotto was against Manny Pacquiao - namely, a tight guard, granite chin, and multi-dimensional attack.

Miguel Cotto, a converted southpaw, is left-hand dominant. While he possesses a sharp jab and punishing left hook, he doesn't have a dynamic right hand. A right hand less threatening than the left is a characteristic shared by Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao's two opponents prior to the Puerto Rican star. The size of the role this has played in how dominant Pacquiao has been since his evenly fought 2008 battle with Juan Manuel Marquez can be debated, but it's clearly something that Manny and Freddie Roach don't have a problem fully exploiting.

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