Clottey holds his ground vs KO artist

Pacquiao vs Clottey
By Roy Luarca
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:18:00 03/09/2010

HOLLYWOOD—Ghanaian Joshua Clottey is reputed to be so tough he can take the punches of Colombian light heavyweight knockout artist Alejandro Berrio.

But can he absorb the impact of Manny Pacquiao’s power punches without collapsing into a heap?

Clottey’s trainer, Lenny DeJesus, thinks so.

DeJesus’ ward has never been knocked out in his career and also did well against the 6-foot-1 Berrio, who has knocked out 28 of his 29 victims while losing just five for a knockout norm of 82.35 percent, which is higher than Pacquiao’s KO percentage of 69.09.

Pacquiao, however, has sent to dreamland his last four opponents in different weight categories—David Diaz, Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto.

The 64-year-old DeJesus, who also served as Pacquiao’s cutman for six fights from 2003-05, the last against Mexican Erik Morales, gave Clottey a 75 percent chance to upstage the seven-time world champion in as many divisions.

DeJesus was earlier quoted as saying that only Pacquiao could beat Pacquiao but changed tack after watching the hard-working Clottey in training.

In another surprising twist, DeJesus announced that Clottey would be at 155 pounds at fight night against the smaller Pacquiao, who has never gone past 149 lb.

Source: sports.inquirer.net