By Ryan Burton

Former welterweight champion Joshua Clottey spoke with BoxingScene.com to respond to an item we posted last night, which disclosed Clottey's refusal to accept $650,000 for a fight with Paul Williams on December 5 on HBO. Based on the short time span to train, Clottey believes that he deserves more money.

"Ryan you know me.  I don't turn down any fights and I want the fight with Paul Williams.  I have been telling you that for a long time. What is fair is fair. I haven't been in the gym for 5 days and I sent my trainer back home to Africa.  If they want to fight me why didn't they call me first?  Why did they negotiate with Sergio Martinez and Sergiy Dzinziruk first? They could have came to me right away and we would have a deal," Clottey told BoxingScene.com.

"We are only 5 weeks away from that date and they want me to fight for 650k?  Ryan let me tell you something, I made less than that to fight Cotto and Cotto made millions.  The arena was full.  You were there you saw it.  Now for this fight, Paul Williams is going to make a lot more than $1 million and you want to give me 650k to fight on short notice.  That just isn't right.  Either give me more money or move the fight back a few weeks so I can have a full 8 weeks to prepare."

Clottey continued to stress that he really wants to fight Paul Williams but he isn't going to be taken advantage of.  I do see his point. When Pavlik first pulled out, you heard Martinez's name mentioned and Dzinziruk but not Clottey's. When it became apparent he wasn't going to have a fight, with Quintana or otherwise, he sent his trainer home and stopped training. If the offer of $650K gets a bump, I have a feeling the fight would get done.

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