Pacquiao: World’s only Seven-division Champ

PhilBoxing.com
13 Mar 2010

Boxing writers named him as having re-invented the sport of sweet science, inspired millions, perhaps billions of people around the world. It would not be an overstatement that Manny Pacquiao is being hailed these days as the savior of a sport and a nation.

The Filipino boxer, who barely stands at 5ft 6½ inches , is universally regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, a point he emphatically demonstrated the past decade by crowning himself world champion in seven weight classes, the last the welteweight belt at the expense of Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto only November of last year, in the process enriching himself by US$13 million.

No less that Bob Arum, his promoter who head Top Rank, believes Pacquiao, otherwise – known as “ Pacman”, is the one boxer responsible for a resurrection of the long-dormant sport.

As for his countrymen, he approximates the status of deity.

Every time he fights, crime in the country drops to virtually zero. Whenever Pacquiao’s fights are on television. Shooting between army troops and the rebels in the south or elsewhere actually stopped.
All this simply adds to his status in as a humble superstar who gives away thousands of dollars each year to help his fellow countrymen cope with grinding poverty.

Born 31 years ago in the little-known town of Kibawe, Bukidnon in far south Mindanao, Pacquiao grew up selling breads and flowers to help keep his family in food. Like many of his countrymen, he had no shoes, little formal education and no future until he fled home at 14 to try his luck in prizefighting.
From the time he won his first professional fight, a four-rounder by decision, on January 22, 1995, rose from a 106-pound fighter to someone who has won world titles at flyweight (112), super-bantamweight (122), featherweight (126), super-featherweight (130), lightweight (135), light-welterweight (140) and welterweight (147).
His victims include Ricky Hatton, Oscar DeLa Hoya, Marco Antonio Barrera, and |Erik Morales, future Hall of Famers all and, in baseball, members of the murderers’ row in the batting order. Those victories catapulted the Filipino icon to the world pound-for-pound throne, a mythical title he has worn the past three years.

Pacquiao has fought 55 times, six fewer than the great Muhammad Ali and had boxed the same number of rounds (305) that Sugar Ray Leonard had when he retired.

Reason why even on the very eve of his fight with Ghanaian challenger Joshua Clottey for his welterweight plum on Sunday, debate on whether he should retire continues.

And chief trainer Freddie Roach, who has been handling him since 2001 as a flyweight champ,, has been pursuing the issue as a reminds of the perils of an overextended boxing career, as he battles the effects of pugilistic Parkinson's syndrome.

"It's hard to say. Is this my last fight? We'll see," Pacquiao, for his part, said. "One never knows. It's still so early to be talking about this, but I do like the thought of going out on top."We did a lot in boxing, achieved a lot -- more than what we set out to do."

Arum though, citing money as reason, said he was "inclined to doubt" that his star fighter would walk away from the sport
Another reason could be politics as the 31-year-old father of four with wife Jinkee is running anew for congress in the lone district of Srangani province.
Despite his iconic stature, he was unsuccessful when he ran for the Philippine Congress in 2007. Undaunted, he is running again this year.
Time magazine honored in 2009 ranked Pacquiao among the 100 people who most affect the world. Among his peers were Sister Mary Scullion, an advocate for the homeless in Philadelphia, and Suraya Pakzad, a women's rights activist in Afghanistan. He also appeared in the Time cover, the first Asian athlete to have been honored.
Pacquiao was already a pretty good fighter when he walked into Roach's Los Angeles gym in 2001 and asked Roach to be his new trainer. Pacquiao had won 31 of 35 bouts outside the United States and already owned the first of his major titles, the WBC flyweight (112-pound) championship. But the fighter, who relied almost exclusively on his dominant left hand, sensed he needed more if he wanted to conquer the sport in the United States. Roach agreed.

Roach, whom Pacquiao referred to as his “master”, tutored technique and preached the importance of ring strategy. He taught the importance of angles as well as the art of hitting and running. In the end, it has been a match made in boxing heaven. In their first fight together, Pacquiao won the IBF super bantamweight (122-pound) championship in Las Vegas.
Pacquiao has won his last 11 bouts by KO, including a career-ending against DeLa Hoya. He’s been voted Fighter of the Year in 2006, 2008 and 2009 by the Boxing Writers Association of America. Has a 90-1-2 record in world championship fights.

Source: PhilBoxing.com

Pacquiao’s Challenger Clottey Follows in Footsteps of Warriors

ARLINGTON, Tex. — Even here, with Saturday’s welterweight title fight in Cowboys Stadium, with nearly 45,000 seats sold, with Manny Pacquiao defending his latest world championship, the fight that fell apart looms over the proceedings.

Every day, someone asks Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, about the other fight, the dream bout between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., boxing’s undisputed kings. Roach gets that question in grocery stores and shopping malls, from Magic Johnson and the celebrities who train at his Wild Card Boxing Club, even from a waiter at an ice lounge in Los Angeles.

“I was wearing an Eskimo hat,” Roach said. “Same question. Everybody wants to see that fight.”

Instead, Pacquiao will face Joshua Clottey under the most jumbo of all JumboTrons, in the fight few wanted except for the participants, none more so than Clottey. To get here, he survived poverty in Africa, career turmoil and four years spent out of boxing, all to become the latest challenger from the most unlikely of boxing hotbeds.

Pacquiao travels in a luxury bus with his image plastered on the side. On Thursday, Clottey rode to Cowboys Stadium in a hotel shuttle van. Pacquiao houses his sizable entourage in two homes in Los Angeles. Clottey lives in a one-bedroom apartment in the Bronx.

Clottey lives a simple life, born out of necessity, buoyed by boxing, each of his 32 years defined by struggle and by spirit.

“I have the mentality of a warrior,” he said. “I love to be in the ring.”

Clottey grew up in Accra, Ghana, a place he described with two words: small and poor. His father worked in road construction, earning barely enough money to care for six children and Clottey’s mother.

Clottey grew up in a house with one room. As many as 10 people stayed there at a time, sharing a single bed, sleeping in shifts.

Clottey, part of the Ga tribe, grew up in a neighborhood called Bokum. He said the Ga fancied themselves as warriors, and that translated naturally to boxing.

“There is no help from nowhere,” Clottey said. “That makes you a harder boy. You have to be hard. Because if you don’t do that, you’re not going to eat.”

Boxing reigned in Bokum, like football in Texas or basketball in Harlem. Except, instead of pickup basketball, the boys in Bokum had pickup boxing.

Clottey said his neighborhood was split into seven areas, each with its own gym. He used the word “gym” loosely, because fights often took place on concrete, inside a thin rope, without hand wraps and with torn, mangled gloves. “Like there,” Clottey said, pointing to a dilapidated parking lot.

From this warrior mentality sprung dozens of warriors, the modern-day kind who fought their battles inside makeshift boxing rings. All the fighters — from the featherweight champion Azumah Nelson to the bruising welterweight Ike Quartey, among others — came from this small, poor place.

Many boxing champions have risen from similar circumstances, but the concentrated volume made Bokum different. Boxers became the area’s chief export.

“Manny Pacquiao’s poverty makes an American kid’s poverty look like luxury,” said the promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Boxing. “From what I’ve heard, Clottey’s poverty makes Manny’s poverty look like luxury.”

Throughout his career, Clottey carried with him the spirit from the neighborhood. He endured a disastrous stretch in England, where he said he never faced top competition. He returned to Ghana, where he began plotting his big break — which was available only in the United States.

He arrived in 2003, broke, and landed in the Bronx, minutes from Yankee Stadium. The first time his manager, Vinny Scolpino, watched Clottey spar, Scolpino had never so much as heard of him.

“I didn’t know him from a hole in the wall,” Scolpino said. “Joshua Clottey was nobody, basically, just another 10-round fighter. I always thought he had something, a spark. Maybe because he had so little, he needed something.”

Clottey compiled a 35-3 record, with 21 knockouts, and his losses came against world champions. He beat Zab Judah. He lost by close decision to Antonio Margarito, despite fighting with a pair of broken hands. In his most recent fight, last June, he lost by controversial split decision to Miguel Cotto.

None of those fighters knocked Clottey down, or cut him, or left any mark other than three losses on his record. The only mark on Clottey is the tattoo he had inked a few weeks back, his initials interlocked with boxing gloves on his right forearm.

Roach predicted Pacquiao would become the first fighter to “stop” Clottey, to end the fight before the scorecards are tallied. Clottey responded: “Why would Manny Pacquiao knock me out? That surprises me. He can’t knock me out with punches.”

After the Cotto fight, Arum consoled an emotional Clottey in the dressing room by promising bigger future fights. Neither Scolpino nor Clottey envisioned what came next, when the Mayweather negotiations fell apart because of blood testing and Clottey landed the biggest of all bouts.

All week, these fighters tossed compliments at each other. Pacquiao called Clottey a gentleman and a “nice guy.” Clottey, while vowing to attack the smaller, quicker Pacquiao, lauded his place in boxing history.

Scolpino believes his fighter can shock Pacquiao on Saturday. He pronounced Clottey to be in the best shape of his career and said, “If he comes out with a ‘W,’ man, he’s on top of the world.”

If Pacquiao wins, and Mayweather defeats Shane Mosley on May 1, negotiations are expected to resume for the fight that would transcend boxing. But first, Pacquiao must topple Clottey, a fighter familiar with long odds.

“People have lost sight of Clottey because of the Mayweather stuff,” Arum said. “He’s never had the exposure. He’s never been a network favorite. But people who say this is going to be a walk in the park for Pacquiao are crazy.”

Inside Cowboys Stadium on Thursday, Clottey leaned forward in the stands, his eyes fixed on the scoreboard that read “Pacquiao-Clottey, The Event.” Clottey had secured the fight he always wanted. For him, Mayweather-Pacquiao could wait.

Source: nytimes.com

Pac-man primed for Clottey showdown

ARLINGTON, Texas – Manny Pacquiao has ascended to the level of the boxing legends.

He faces a difficult test on Saturday at Cowboys Stadium when he defends his World Boxing Organization welterweight title in an HBO Pay-Per-View bout against Joshua Clottey.

Promoter Bob Arum was beaming after Friday’s festive weigh-in that attracted around 2,500 enthusiastic fans to the plaza outside the swank stadium.

Only a few hundred of the 45,000 tickets for the card remain, prompting Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on Friday to offer standing-room tickets at $35 apiece.

Jones refers to his standing-room seats as “party passes,” and Arum will be partying for a week if early indications of the fight’s popularity prove true.

The closed-circuit locations and presales in the East are at record levels, surpassing where they were in 2007 for the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight. Indications are that the pay-per-view is tracking better than expected, and Arum said he won’t be shocked if it touches 900,000 buyers.

That’s an astonishing number for just about any fight but even more so for a bout against a largely unknown opponent like Clottey, who doesn’t bring with him a large fan base.

Had Pacquiao-Clottey fought two years ago, Arum would have been lucky to have sold a quarter of the tickets he has sold for Saturday’s card.

One of the truths in boxing promoting is that you always need a strong ‘B-side’ if you’re going to do real business.

Pacquiao, though, is one of the few exceptions to that maxim. He is one of those, like Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson, who no longer needs a wildly popular B-side to sell. Pacquiao sells tickets and pay-per-views on his name alone.

He erased any doubts about his legitimacy as a welterweight when he decimated Cotto in November.

Pacquiao has set the bar enormously high, and though Clottey never has been knocked out, trainer Freddie Roach is expecting Pacquiao to set another first.

“I really believe Manny will find a way,” Roach said.

Pacquiao was as relaxed as ever on Friday. He was wolfing down food in an attempt to come somewhere near the welterweight limit of 147 pounds.

He was 142 when he awakened on Friday, then ate a large breakfast featuring eggs and had a lunch of grilled pork, grilled beef, white and brown rice and steamed vegetables. He was also gulping large amounts of water.

That’s in stark contrast to the vast majority of fighters, who can’t eat at all on the day of the weigh-in and wind up sucking on ice or, if they’re lucky, slices of fruit.

Despite all he ate – and he was headed for dinner after the weigh-in – he still was only 145 pounds.

Like Ali, he understands his place in the sport, as well. Boxing fans were bitterly disappointed when a bout with Mayweather wasn’t finalized. That would have pitted the two best fighters in the world for overall supremacy in a match that in essence would have been boxing’s Super Bowl.

Facing a difficult, but far less notable opponent, Pacquiao understands the need to perform to give the sport a jolt when it needs one after it lost a mega-fight at the negotiating table.

“I can’t promise a knockout, but I want to put on a good show for the people who support me all the time,” he said.

Clottey is a bigger man naturally and probably will weigh around 160 pounds by the time he walks to the ring on Saturday. Pacquiao may go up to 148 but certainly isn’t expected to hit 150.

He has been smaller than everyone he has fought since his epic 2008 match with Juan Manuel Marquez, but in subsequent knockout victories over then-lightweight champion David Diaz, De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Cotto, Pacquiao has been stalking his larger opponents.

Perhaps the most stunning scene in many a year was Cotto, one of the toughest, most aggressive fighters in recent times, backpedaling to flee the power of the man who just two years earlier was fighting at 128 pounds.

His meteoric rise from super bantamweight in 2001, where he won the International Boxing Federation title while weighing 121 pounds, to his crushing victory over Cotto in November has caused some to suspect he has used performance-enhancing drugs.

The Mayweather fight was unable to be made for that very reason, as Mayweather for the first time in his career demanded that his opponent agree to random blood and urine testing.

Arum, though, insists it’s a misnomer to believe Pacquiao is a big man now.

“He was having trouble making 130 and after the Marquez fight (on March 15, 2008), he wanted to go to lightweight (and its 135-pound limit,” Arum said. “But he’s really a 140-pounder now. He fought Hatton at 138. His most comfortable weight now is 140, but if there were some kind of a huge fight at 135, he could make that if he had to.

“That’s what makes what he’s doing all the more remarkable, because you have this little guy just beating the (expletive) out of guys who are physically a lot bigger than he is.”

Clottey has a tight defense and isn’t a guy who throws a lot of punches, thereby reducing the number of openings to be hit. So Pacquiao may not get the knockout, but there is one thing you can count on when Manny Pacquiao hits the ring – excitement.

Legendary hockey announcer Mike Lange of the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins often would say during a particularly exciting game, “If you’ve missed this one, shame on you for six weeks.”

And if you’re a boxing fan and you miss a chance to see Pacquiao, you’re going to regret it a lot longer than just six weeks.

He’s that good.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

PACQUIAO MAY GIVE AWAY TEN POUNDS TO CLOTTEY

By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 13 Mar 2010

Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao may give away around ten pounds when he enters the ring in “The Event” against Ghana’s tough guy Joshua Clottey at the unbelievable $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys Stadium on Sunday, Manila Time.

At the official weigh-in which drew a huge crowd of predominantly Pacquiao supporters, the Filipino champion weighed 145 ¾ pounds while Clottey who reportedly had to shed off some excess weight the previous day tipped the scales at the exact welterweight limit of 147.

Clottey said earlier that he was going to have a hearty meal after the weigh in and the consensus is that he will enter the ring at around 160 pounds on fight night although his trainer Lenny De Jesus told us the other day that he wanted to make sure Clottey comes in around 155 so his weight won’t slow him down against the super fast Pacquiao.

Pacquiao’s conditioning expert Alex Ariza said he expects Pacquiao to weight around 150 at fight time which would definitely give Clottey, who can take a big shot, an advantage in weight to go with his slight advantage in height which was evident when the two fighters posted for the media.

Try as they might to provide the customary stare-down, Pacquiao and Clottey couldn’t pull it off and instead smiled at each other further accentuating what Pacquiao has always maintained – there is no need for trash-talk.

Indeed, if there is one added dimension to the Pacquiao legend is that like the late, great Gabriel “Flash” Elorde, he earns the respect of his opponents by being a gentleman in and outside the ring.

The two Filipinos featured in the undercard also made weight without trouble.

Featherweight Michael Farenas, a protégé of former two-division world champion Gerry Penalosa came in at 127 1/5 pounds as against the 126 of veteran Joe Morales while bantamweight Eden Sonsona, a protégé of Pacquiao’s former business manager, the late Rod Nazario weighed 119.7 pounds while his opponent, former world champion, veteran Mauricio Pastrana checked in at 119 ½ pounds.

In the WBC lightweight title fight former champion David Diaz from whom Pacquiao won the title with a crushing 9th round tipped the scales at 134 while champion Humberto Sotto was slightly heavier at 134 1/5 pounds.

Diaz believes that Pacquiao faces "a tough fight against Clottey, but its a winnable fight for Pacquiao." WBA super flyweight interim champion Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire says he expects Pacquiao to win by a twelve round decision and the chances of winning by a knockout are about 30 percent.

Diaz, who came back from the loss to Pacquiao on June 28, 2008 to win a majority decision over former WBC and IBF lightweight champion and WBC super featherweight champion Jesus Chavez last September 26 said he is “feeling good and f eels blessed to get another opportunity to fight for the world title. I am getting ready and hope everything will go right.”

He said the almost six months break since the Chavez fight wont affect him since he has been sparring a lot and while its not the same thing Diaz said “I think I’ll be okay.”

Diaz has been training under Mike Garcia and Jim Strickland in Chicago and said although Sotto “is a tough guy but I’ll work that body and try to get inside of him. He’s a real good technician in the way he uses his reach but if you get inside of that and work him I think we’ll be okay.”

Diaz recalled how well he was treated when he was Pacquiao’s guest along with Edwin Valero at Pacquiao’s lavish 30th birthday celebration in his hometown of General Santos City in December 2008. He said “they were all very nice and give them my best wishes.”

Source: PhilBoxing.com

Pacquiao-Clottey Weigh-In Report/PREDICTION PAGE

By George Kimball

ARLINGTON, Texas --- When they stepped on the scale outside Texas Stadium Friday night the differential between them was a mere pound and a quarter, but Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach supposes that as much as 15 or 16 pounds could separate Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey by the time they step into the ring tomorrow night.

“Manny won’t put on much at all. He can’t gain much more (than the 145 3/4 he scaled in last night),” said Roach, who expects his righter to come into the ring weighing no more than 148 or 149. Clottey, on the other hand, is a natural welterweight who has made no secret of his intent to come in ‘big’ for the megabout, and Roach fully expects his fighter to be facing a full-fledged super-middleweight by the time the bell rings.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Clottey weighs 165 or 166 by fight time,” said Roach, who nonetheless remains resolute in his prediction of a Pacquiao knockout.

The weigh-in was conducted before an audience several thousand strong that would make for a decent crowd at most any club fight show you could think of. Announcer Michael Buffer was kept busy introducing the dignitaries, who included former champions Antonio Margarito and Jorge Arce of Mexico, along with Dallas‘ own Stevie Cruz, who upset Barry McGuigan to win the WBA featherweight title almost a quarter-century ago. Actor Robert Duvall was also introduced on the dais but did not weigh in, and Cowboys‘ safety Darren Woodson took the microphone from Buffer to warm up the crowd, whose allegiance seemed evenly divided between Mexico and the Philippines. If there were any rooters from Ghana they did not make their presence known.

Even though Cowboys Stadium was reconfigured to accommodate 45,000 for Pacquiao-Clottey, promoter Bob Arum said shortly before the weigh-in that just a handful of tickets remained, and a sellout appears likely. Arum revealed that his partner, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, had opted to put an undetermined (but probably unlimited) number of $35 “party” tickets on sale 24 hours before the fight.

The “party pass” is an innovation Jones developed for sold-out Cowboys home games. Patrons don’t get a seat, but rather are allowed to mill around on a plaza high above the field. Sight lines are pretty limited, but the party patrons are able to watch on the state of the art video boards, and, of course, have access to a bar. The setup was designed, according to Jones, “to accommodate fans who just want to be part of the atmosphere" -- and judging from the turnout at last night’s weigh-in and their reaction to Arum’s “party time!” announcement, there appears to be an abundance of those.

The main event referee, Rafael Ramos, was working the night Manny Pacquiao last fought in Texas three years ago, but their paths didn’t cross that night at the Alamodome. Ramos drew several undercard bouts, including those involving Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Victor Ortiz, but the assignment for the Paquiao-Jorge Solis main event went to Vic Drakulich of Transylvania.

Although he has resided in San Antonio for the past 17 years, the 53 year-old Ramos was born in Puerto Rico and cut his refereeing teeth in the New Jersey casinos two decades ago. Although he has worked upwards of 30 world title bouts, more than half of them were overseas, and he seems to specialize in Oriental junkets, having worked two dozen title bouts in the Far East, including 21 separate trips to Japan.

Ironically, Ramos was not the WBO’s first choice to work tonight’s bout. The slate of officials initially proposed listed Laurence Cole as the referee, but that was overruled by William Kuntz, the executive director of the Texas Commission. Not only has Cole involved himself in controversy by mishandling several high-profile bouts over the years (including a suspension for his misconduct in a 2006 fight involving Juan Manuel Marquez), but it was felt that the fact that he is the son of former Texas boxing boss Dickie Cole might create the appearance of impropriety. (This apparently never occurred to anyone on Dickie’s watch.)

At the very least, had the Cole appointment stood, there would have been as much attention focused on the referee as on the fighters themselves, and, Ramos noted earlier this week, “the fans aren’t paying to see me.”

Should their services be required, the panel of ringside judges for the main event will be Duane Ford (Nevada), Levi Martinez (New Mexico) and Nelson Vasquez (Puerto Rico).

Ramos was the referee when Marquez stopped Juan Diaz in the ninth round of their 2009 Fight of the Year candidate in Houston. Ironically, although their services were not required that night, both Ford and Martinez were judges for that bout.
* * *
Ten bouts in all are on tap, with the last four of them slated to be aired on the HBO PPV telecast, including the Humberto Soto-David Diaz WBC lightweight title fight.

In introducing the principals for that one at Thursday’s undercard press conference, promoter Bob Arum noted that more than any other single person, Diaz is responsible for setting in motion the chain of events leading to tonight’s megafight by agreeing to Pacquiao’s 2008 challenge for his WBC lightweight title.

Since Pacquiao had not once in 50 pro fights ventured north of 130 pounds, it was not a fight Diaz was obliged to take, and Pac-Man’s TKO9 presaged similar fates for Oscar De Lay Hoya, Ricky Hatton, and Miguel Cotto in Manny’s subsequent climb up the scales.

At 29, Alfonso Gomez is better known for his role in ‘The Contender’ and as the man who retired the late Arturo Gatti than for anything he’s done lately. Gomez revealed that much of his recent energy has gone into performing with his two brothers in a Spanish hip-hop group called Hybrid. Thursday afternoon the Fonz provided a sneak peek, reciting the lyrics to a recent composition, the subject of which was tonight’s 36 year-old opponent, Jose Luis Castillo.

The recitation was in Spanish, but we can reliably report that Gomez’ song incorporated the names of Castillo, Bob Arum, Freddy Krueger, and Tecate beer. Castillo seemed properly amused.

The PPV show will kick off with a scheduled ten-rounder in which Irish middleweight John Duddy has been pitted against his third consecutive Mexican-born opponent in his year-long quest for redemption following last year’s upset at the hands of Billy Lyell. Unlike his recent victims Michi Munoz and Juan Astorga, both of whom now reside in Kansas, Michael Medina lives in Monterrey and will be fighting North of the border for just the third time in his career.

It was consequently something of a surprise, then, to hear Medina address the gathering in perfectly un-accented English. (In fact, claimed a Texan in attendance, “Medina’s English is easier to understand than Duddy’s is.”)

“English was actually my first language,” Medina explained to us later. “I was born in Mexico, but my family moved to California when I was little. I went to American schools until I was 12, when we moved back to Mexico.”

In addition to the sold-out live audience, Arum is hoping for as many as 750,000 buys for the US pay-per-view telecast. Millions more, as Buffer likes to say, will be watching on live television around the world. The team of Ian Darke and Jim Watt are here to call the bout for Britain’s SKY TV. Because no Brit is involved, Pacquiao-Clottey will be shown on free television in the United Kingdom. By contrast, May’s Amir Khan-Paulie Malignaggi fight at the Madison Square Garden Theatre will be a pay-per-view fight in Britain. Go figure.

Source: thesweetscience.com

Exclusive image gallery: Pacquiao and Clottey both make weight for Saturday night

Moments ago both Manny Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey made weight for their WBO Welterweight title fight tomorrow night at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. Las Vegas photographer Chris Farina was able to capture images of each man and both fighters looking extremely relaxed and confident heading into tomorrow.

The champion Pacquiao weighed in at 145.75 pounds while Clottey weighed in right on the button at 147. It's not surprising that Pacquiao came in well under the Welterweight limit, as he was fighting at 135 pounds just a year and a half ago. While it was rumored that Clottey may have been having weight issues throughout the week he also showed his professionalism and desire in making the limit. Both men looked extremely fit and strong and there will surely be fireworks come Saturday night.

For exclusive images of Pacquiao and Clottey making weight please click on the collage below...

Source: Examiner.com

Pacquiao vs Clottey Weigh In Video