By Lee Groves (photo by Chris Farina/Top Rank)

As boxing fans, we admire the array of physical skills the very best fighters show. Some of those will be on display when pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao fights Joshua Clottey Saturday at Cowboys Stadium.

The match pits Pacquiao’s lightning hand and foot speed against Clottey’s strength and defensive prowess and the resulting mix should be a pleasing one.

When two decorated fighters come together, however, the result is often determined not by the physical but by the intangible. This fight is no exception, for each man may well be forced to go beyond himself to find the vital ingredient that will separate victor from vanquished.

Sugar Ray Leonard labeled this phenomenon “bringing it up from the gut” following his landmark victory over Thomas Hearns in September 1981, but to me this trait can be encapsulated by a simple two-letter word – “It.”

Others have discussed what It is outside the ring and to me, It is the ability of a fighter to establish a personal connection so strong that his fans feel more alive with every victory and die a little bit inside whenever he falls short.

Even among those who don’t follow boxing, the fighter who has It is a presence whose actions deserve more than passing attention. They read about him in the newspapers, see his face on TV, bear witness to his deeds on the sports highlight shows and read about his life in the gossip columns and entertainment magazines, not just the sports pages.

It doesn’t even have to radiate positive energy. Over the years there have been self-styled villains who revel in the hostility they generate from mainstream fans while also inspiring a small but vocal legion of die-hards who also proudly occupy the jagged edges of society.

Through their hero’s accomplishments, they are given vicarious validation, plus they get that special charge that comes with feeling unique when they defend him to their less enlightened acquaintances. Such are the fruits of being – or being linked to – the anti-hero.

But how does It come to life inside the ring? One can have all the personality in the world but lack what It takes between the ropes. The ones who have It everywhere they go are fortunate indeed, for professional success usually leads to more of It beyond the squared circle.

Manny Pacquiao is the embodiment of It these days, but in terms of worldwide acclaim the full force of It didn’t come to “The Pac Man” until very recently.

Pacquiao had always been a dynamic force during battle and an electric personality away from the ring, but he didn’t acquire his full portion of It until he destroyed Oscar de la Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto in succession. He is generally recognized as boxing’s best practitioner and that fame provides the fuel for his out-of-the-ring activities.

Among other things, he is a singer, billiards player, aspiring politician, commercial pitchman and movie star. No matter what he does, where he is or who accompanies him he is the center of attention, not because he asks for it but because he has It  – in spades.

He couldn’t have become what he is, however, without first having It at his disposal during combat. Pacquiao’s immense physical tools are amplified by an inborn thirst for confrontation that pushes him into realms normal humans can’t – or are not willing to – experience.

At the same time, he pushes his opponents – even those who also possess a greater measure of valor than most – past the breaking point in terms of pain tolerance and willingness to press onward. It is one thing to break the will of an ordinary man, but another to do the same thing to a fellow athlete – one that is also intimately familiar with the intricacies of waging battle with another athlete.

Pacquiao showed that ferocity in the foul-filled war with Nedal Hussein nearly 10 years ago, where it would have been easy to succumb to frustration Hussein’s resistance and tactics would normally engender.

He demonstrated It by overcoming an early deficit in his second fight with Erik Morales to post a spectacular 10th round TKO that vaulted him toward the pound-for-pound stratosphere.

He even showed It in fights where he didn’t win – the first Morales fight in which he fought many rounds blinded by blood as well as holding off a surging Juan Manuel Marquez in their initial encounter that resulted in a draw.

Even at age 31 – after 15 years and 55 professional fights – the fire that drives him continues to burn with the intensity of white-hot coals.

Pacquiao’s next challenge comes in the form of Clottey, a hard-as-nails Ghanaian who may be the strongest fighter in physical terms he has yet faced.

At 5-8 he stands an inch-and-a-half taller than Pacquiao and his 70-inch reach is two-and-a-half inches longer. His heavily muscled frame presents an intimidating picture for us laymen but for veteran ring men such as Pacquiao such thoughts perished many years ago.

Both men know that skills and heart, not physiques, determine success inside the ropes. Those, as well as the quality called It.

And It is the reason why Pacquiao will emerge victorious Saturday night.

Make no mistake, Clottey is an accomplished fighter. Like Pacquiao, Clottey is a 15-year ring veteran and in that time he has compiled a record of 35-3-0-1NC (20KO).

He captured the vacant IBF welterweight title with a nine-round technical decision over Zab Judah in August 2008, a result precipitated by a punch that opened a fight-stopping cut on Judah. He never defended the belt because he was stripped for daring to fight WBO champion Miguel Cotto for more money and prestige instead of defending against mandatory challenger Issac Hlatschwayo.

Most boxing observers agreed that Clottey was a solid second choice for Pacquiao once the megamatch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. disintegrated in negotiations.

When sizing up the fight, one can’t ignore that there’s a difference – however slight – between fighters who are merely very good and those who achieve true greatness. That crucial It factor separates boxing’s wheat and chaff and when it came time for Clottey to rise up and stamp himself as a genuine great he showed he didn’t have It.

His first failed opportunity came in December 2006 in Atlantic City against then-WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito.

In the first four rounds Clottey’s piercing jabs and accurate hooks scored often and his high guard made life difficult for the defending champ. He landed the harder, snappier blows while the notoriously slow-starting Margarito maintained a prodigious, but largely ineffective, work rate.

Clottey proved in the fight’s opening acts that his working parts were superior. Then the time came to test the internal combustion.

That test came in the fifth when Margarito turned on the jets and forced Clottey to play defense. More importantly, Clottey broke his left hand sometime during the round – a hand he said was injured a couple of weeks earlier in training – and with that a major offensive weapon was removed from the equation.

Discouraged, Clottey dramatically curtailed his output and for that he paid the price. In the ninth he was swept under by a ceaseless torrent of blows, in the 10th he was booed as he rode his bicycle for the entire round and in the 11th and 12th he could not conjure the charge he needed to negate Margarito’s second-half surge.

A normal human would have withdrawn from the contest long before but – fair or not – boxers are held to a higher standard, both by the public and by fellow members of the fraternity. Margarito entered the bout with an ankle injury and revealed afterward that he believed he fractured his right wrist in the fifth round – the same round that Clottey sustained his injury.

Unlike Clottey, Margarito increased his pressure and punched through the pain to the tune of 1,193 punches thrown to Clottey’s 269 from round five onward. On this night, Margarito won a lopsided decision because he had what “It” took to exit the ring a winner.

Clottey’s second chance to prove his It quotient occurred in his most recent fight against Cotto. At first Clottey showed encouraging signs, for he overcame the first knockdown of his career (courtesy of a shotgun jab) and a body slam in round five to sweep rounds seven through 10. Following the 10th, Clottey had Cotto where he wanted him – battered, bleeding and bothered.

With blood cascading from a butt-induced cut that was opened in round three and the loser of four consecutive rounds, the backpedaling Cotto had the same strength-sapped look as he did in the final stages of the Margarito fight. The fight’s momentum was clearly on Clottey’s side and with that the Ghanaian had the opportunity to symbolically step on Cotto’s windpipe and establish a potentially career-altering result.

But It was not to be.

Cotto had shown against Ricardo Torres, DeMarcus Corley and Zab Judah that he had the capacity to produce when he needed It the most. In the 11th round against Clottey, he summoned the energy to punch and move with purpose and close the numerical gaps that were so evident in the previous four rounds. Meanwhile, Clottey was content to pursue doggedly but without urgency, allowing Cotto to climb back into the fight instead of seizing the moment. Yes, Clottey was the aggressor but he was not the effective aggressor and that proved to be the difference on the scorecards.

Clottey was aghast when the split decision in Cotto’s favor was announced and more than a few fans sympathized. The hard truth, however, was that he didn’t – or couldn’t – do what Pacquiao did in the same situation.

Although Pacquiao was miles ahead of Cotto on the scorecards he wasn’t satisfied with a mere decision victory. Like all the genuine legends in all sports Pacquiao knew that while victory is great, winning emphatically is even better. Pacquiao realized that an eye-catching knockout would not only be the perfect preamble for a potential Mayweather superfight but also the definitive response to “Money’s” dominant victory over Juan Manuel Marquez.

In other words, It guys instinctively know what must be done besides the obvious, and then find a way to make It so.

On fight night many factors will be at play – size versus speed and right-hander versus southpaw among others – but the biggest one of all may well be that special mental ingredient that turns aspiration into inspiration and inspiration into reality.

The fight boils down to this – to win Pacquiao only has to be who he already is while Clottey must make wholesale changes in his approach and mentality.

To achieve that at age 32 and in the biggest fight of his career in terms of notoriety would be a monumental achievement for Clottey. The inherent advantage Pacquiao has of maintaining what one has versus Clottey having to shift his entire methodology can’t be overstated.

Because Pacquiao has It and Clottey has yet to show It, the Filipino star will add another notch to his legend by way of unanimous decision.