While waiting with my roommate while his truck was being reinspected at a local Oil Xchange, in large part because he was headed to Fry's Electronics afterward, I thumbed through ESPN The Magazine until I found an article detailing Joshua Clottey, the fighter from Ghana, Africa that was scheduled to fight Manny Pacquiao at Cowboys Stadium.

I hadn't heard very much about either fighter, however, once I brought it up amongst coworkers, some of them knew exactly who Pacquiao was. They also noted that Joshua Clottey was an existing human.

ESPN The Magazine noted the same level of acknowledgement. Clottey was a humble alternate, unlike Pacquiao's intended opponent, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Boxing promoters liked Clottey because he and Pacquiao had somewhat similar records and stats. One promoter was quoted as saying that Clottey, "wouldn't be a pain in the ass," alluding to the intricacies of discussing a bout with Mayweather. The story went on to inspire the underdog in me to root for Clottey. Initially, after hearing what a big deal this fight was and searching highlight videos of Pacquiao, I thought he was a badass and wanted to root for him. Reading this article began to sway me into Clottey's corner.

Clottey didn't have the clout of Pacquiao, who in the Phillipines is so well liked that he's planning to run for office there soon, likely to win in that arena by a landslide as well. The fact that Clottey didn't have the clout made this a dream. He may be an alternate, but it's a shot. Not just a shot, but an actual spot at the big time. He didn't expect a win out of this, he saw the opportunity. It was my hope as the fight neared that this opportunity would help Clottey to take someone's belt and change his life. It was one of those stories you read and you think, the other guy (Pacquaio) has already made it. Let this guy show us what determination can do.

Just hours ago, the fight came to a head. Clottey had a promising jab that would make Pacquiao back off anytime he deployed it. But he never got aggressive, as his corner so wished he would. In the beginning, I thought that Clottey was utilizing Ali's famous "rope-a-dope" strategy to cause the quicker Pacquiao to tire just in time for a knockout. As the bout progressed, Pacquiao seemed tired, but when the fight continued to persist, so did Pacquiao and his conditioning. Both fighters were scheduled to make a handsome purse from this fight, win, lose or draw. Based on what I saw in that fight, Clottey didn't want a title as badly as I had hoped. At some point, it seemed it entered his mind to just survive and take all 12 rounds into a decision by the cards. Whether or not simple survival is why he employed this strategy, it was the final outcome. He may have made a life-changing amount of money with his share of the purse and the experience is surely priceless in his mind. But the underdog could have done so much more with this opportunity than play it safe. Maybe he's attempting to build on this, but in his position, you can't count on that. You have to let it all hang out, which Pacquiao did and Clottey did not. No fighter should do that much blocking unless we go back to 15 round fights and he's punch drunk before it's over. That's may be the harshest thing that I'm going to say because, at one point, Clottey did show weakness in the knees.

Maybe at that point, his mentality changed from his original intentions to simple survival. That's when he should have taken chances. Outpunched, the dream was lost. Manny "Pac Man" Pacquiao didn't destroy or dismember Clottey as many predicted, but he beat him and retained his title. Hopefully Clottey will be even more motivated now. The disappointing part is that people may not want to think of Clottey now that it's over. For some reason I do. I'd like to see him build on this. I'd also like to see Mayweather not duck his next chance at Pacquiao. That fight needs to happen, I just wish Clottey could have done a better job of taking Mayweather's place. I'm just disappointed by the fact that the expected outcome happened. At least a split decision would have been nice to see. At the end of it, I was unfortunately happy that I hadn't bought seats at the stadium for this event. It wasn't the struggle I had hoped it to be. I'm trying to figure out what posessed me to type all of this. I guess it's a message to Clottey. Even if you lost anyway, I would have appreciated more intensity. Maybe I want to call out Mayweather. Prima donna. Maybe the point is that I want to let Clottey know I switched my sympathies back to Pacquiao. He fought. I still have hope for Clottey. Like his effort tonight though, I'm not sure that's enough.