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"First of all, you're talking about two totally different fighters. One fighter is flat-footed, lies on the ropes and allows people to beat on him. Floyd is a mobile fighter. Floyd isn't just defense. Floyd's defense is why he's moving and while he's actually throwing punches. He will make you miss while he's in the heat of the battle. Floyd makes you miss and makes you pay. Clottey doesn't make you miss. He allows you to hit him on the elbows and hit him on the arms and that's not really defense. There is no comparison to what Floyd does because it's not even the same thing, so for anybody to say that, they are asinine...Listen, you hear so many things, but the only thing that made sense to me when they spoke on the fact of Floyd and Pacquiao fighting was when Max Kellerman said, in the closing of the show, that a writer said it's not about Floyd being scared of Manny. If Manny wants the fight, he will step up and take the test and that's what's killing the fight. There is nothing else killing the fight. Every time that subject comes up, it seems to get lost and disappears," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather as he shared his thoughts on Manny Pacquiao's recent performance against Joshua Clottey this past weekend. Check out what else he had to say about Pacquiao and a potential clash with his nephew, Floyd Mayweather Jr.
PC: You predicted Clottey would fight the way he did. Did anything surprise you about Clottey Saturday night?
JM: He did exactly what I thought he would do. He covered up and he had good enough defense not to be knocked out, but at the same time, you can't win a fight with just defense. You have to take some chances. He was put in a situation where he would have to come out of character and basically fight a fight that he's not used to fighting. In every fight that Clottey has been in, especially big fights, he never presses on the gas. Even when he fought Cotto, he had Cotto gone, but he was content with plodding forward, holding his hands up high to not get hit anymore. He allowed Cotto to steal the fight from him; the same thing with Margarito. I don't know what it is with him. Whatever it is, the light doesn't go off with him to say, "I'm a marquee fighter and maybe I need to press on the gas if I even want to be one." In this fight, from the beginning, from the time it was made, I didn't think it would be a good fight. I knew that fight was going to be exactly like it was, with him playing defense and being content with the fact that he made it the distance. And that's not even caring about winning.
PC: On the other side of the ball, what did you think of Pacquiao's performance? He did pretty much all he could do with what was given to him.
JM: It was a decent performance. It wasn't nothing spectacular, but at the same time, Clottey is a guy that's tough to look spectacular against. I think that...it was just a good fight; very boring and very one-sided. You can't really look spectacular if a guy isn't taking chances or taking any risk to try to win the fight. You had one man working and one man trying to survive. With that being the case, it didn't even give Manny a chance to actually look good because there were very few exchanges where both guys were trying to hit each other simultaneously. They were never both throwing punches. It was just one guy working and one guy playing defense and that's it.
PC: A lot has been made of the commentary of the fight. What did you think of the HBO crew?
JM: Don't get me wrong, it seems like they just got caught up into the hype itself and caught up into the hype of Manny, which a lot of people are. Look at this situation, and a friend just brought this to my attention, he said, "When Manny started fighting, he started off at 106 pounds. That's like Michael Carbajal going up to beat Tommy Hearns and Ray Leonard." Of course, that in itself is phenomenal, but I couldn't see that happening. So even with Manny, it's a situation where this guy has the image of a nice guy, but nobody really knows. He goes out there and he performs and does what he needs to do, especially against a guy like Clottey, who is basically a sitting duck. Anyone that would really assess this fight, who is a fight fan or trainer or anything, would automatically think that this is how the fight would turn out. This fight right here changes your life and he still wouldn't take any risk. You gotta go out on your shield and give yourself a chance to win. He can say he made it the distance with him, but so what? He didn't do anything.
PC: I hear this being said a lot and I want to let you touch on it a little bit, but I hear people say, "Well, Lil' Floyd is defensive as well. What would he do differently than Clottey?"
JM: First of all, you're talking about two totally different fighters. One fighter is flat-footed, lies on the ropes and allows people to beat on him. Floyd is a mobile fighter. Floyd isn't just defense. Floyd's defense is why he's moving and while he's actually throwing punches. He will make you miss while he's in the heat of the battle. Floyd makes you miss and makes you pay. Clottey doesn't make you miss. He allows you to hit him on the elbows and hit him on the arms and that's not really defense. There is no comparison to what Floyd does because it's not even the same thing, so for anybody to say that, they are asinine. You're talking about one guy who is a pure boxer, and the purest boxer in the history of the sport, that can actually hit you and not be hit and he right in your face at the same time. And then you got one guy that lies on the ropes and allows you to beat on him. That's the difference is that one is a boxer and one is a sitting duck.
PC: What did you think of Pacquiao and Freddie Roach's post-fight comments regarding your nephew?
JM: Listen, you hear so many things, but the only thing that made sense to me when they spoke on the fact of Floyd and Pacquiao fighting was when Max Kellerman said, in the closing of the show, that a writer said it's not about Floyd being scared of Manny. If Manny wants the fight, he will step up and take the test and that's what's killing the fight. There is nothing else killing the fight. Every time that subject comes up, it seems to get lost and disappears. I watched the fight and it's one of those situations...Jim Lampley, oh my God, what was that? Anything that Pacquiao did, he got belligerent about it. When he went on that "****, ****, ****" tirade, Pacquiao wasn't even landing any punches. My God, he got too caught up in the moment. If you listen to him, you would have thought you were watching a very exciting fight. One guy was throwing punches and one guy playing defense, that's it. None of the punches were even landing at the time when he was going ****, ****, ****. I was like, "Wow!" You know what's funny? I fell asleep on that fight. It couldn't hold my interest. That's how boring the fight was. I predicted that type of fight because I know how Clottey fights, but I didn't think it would be that boring. Clottey is a guy that is defense first and covers his head so that you don't have a chance to hit him on the chin. Like I said, anybody that compares his style to Floyd's is asinine and they don't know anything about boxing. You can't even elaborate with someone that would even let that come out of their mouth.
PC: I felt Clottey's trainer was pretty honest with him. As a trainer, how frustrating is it when you're telling your guy he's losing every round and he has to take a chance and they go out there and do the same things that they had been doing?
JM: At that point and time, the fighter has basically taken the fight away from you. He's not allowing you to be the trainer; he's doing what he wants to do and you just so happen to be a voice in the corner. He's taking your job away from you because, in his mind, he's already thinking, "I don't care what you say. You can say anything you want to, it doesn't matter." At that point and time, your job doesn't even mean anything. It was about him and how he was going to end the fight. I like the fact that the guy was completely honest with him. "Dude, you lost every round, when are you going to take a chance?" Clottey was also honest to come out and tell the truth, "He threw so many punches, I couldn't do anything and I didn't want to get caught." You don't want to get caught? This is boxing. This is the biggest fight of your life.
"First of all, you're talking about two totally different fighters. One fighter is flat-footed, lies on the ropes and allows people to beat on him. Floyd is a mobile fighter. Floyd isn't just defense. Floyd's defense is why he's moving and while he's actually throwing punches. He will make you miss while he's in the heat of the battle. Floyd makes you miss and makes you pay. Clottey doesn't make you miss. He allows you to hit him on the elbows and hit him on the arms and that's not really defense. There is no comparison to what Floyd does because it's not even the same thing, so for anybody to say that, they are asinine...Listen, you hear so many things, but the only thing that made sense to me when they spoke on the fact of Floyd and Pacquiao fighting was when Max Kellerman said, in the closing of the show, that a writer said it's not about Floyd being scared of Manny. If Manny wants the fight, he will step up and take the test and that's what's killing the fight. There is nothing else killing the fight. Every time that subject comes up, it seems to get lost and disappears," stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather as he shared his thoughts on Manny Pacquiao's recent performance against Joshua Clottey this past weekend. Check out what else he had to say about Pacquiao and a potential clash with his nephew, Floyd Mayweather Jr.
PC: You predicted Clottey would fight the way he did. Did anything surprise you about Clottey Saturday night?
JM: He did exactly what I thought he would do. He covered up and he had good enough defense not to be knocked out, but at the same time, you can't win a fight with just defense. You have to take some chances. He was put in a situation where he would have to come out of character and basically fight a fight that he's not used to fighting. In every fight that Clottey has been in, especially big fights, he never presses on the gas. Even when he fought Cotto, he had Cotto gone, but he was content with plodding forward, holding his hands up high to not get hit anymore. He allowed Cotto to steal the fight from him; the same thing with Margarito. I don't know what it is with him. Whatever it is, the light doesn't go off with him to say, "I'm a marquee fighter and maybe I need to press on the gas if I even want to be one." In this fight, from the beginning, from the time it was made, I didn't think it would be a good fight. I knew that fight was going to be exactly like it was, with him playing defense and being content with the fact that he made it the distance. And that's not even caring about winning.
PC: On the other side of the ball, what did you think of Pacquiao's performance? He did pretty much all he could do with what was given to him.
JM: It was a decent performance. It wasn't nothing spectacular, but at the same time, Clottey is a guy that's tough to look spectacular against. I think that...it was just a good fight; very boring and very one-sided. You can't really look spectacular if a guy isn't taking chances or taking any risk to try to win the fight. You had one man working and one man trying to survive. With that being the case, it didn't even give Manny a chance to actually look good because there were very few exchanges where both guys were trying to hit each other simultaneously. They were never both throwing punches. It was just one guy working and one guy playing defense and that's it.
PC: A lot has been made of the commentary of the fight. What did you think of the HBO crew?
JM: Don't get me wrong, it seems like they just got caught up into the hype itself and caught up into the hype of Manny, which a lot of people are. Look at this situation, and a friend just brought this to my attention, he said, "When Manny started fighting, he started off at 106 pounds. That's like Michael Carbajal going up to beat Tommy Hearns and Ray Leonard." Of course, that in itself is phenomenal, but I couldn't see that happening. So even with Manny, it's a situation where this guy has the image of a nice guy, but nobody really knows. He goes out there and he performs and does what he needs to do, especially against a guy like Clottey, who is basically a sitting duck. Anyone that would really assess this fight, who is a fight fan or trainer or anything, would automatically think that this is how the fight would turn out. This fight right here changes your life and he still wouldn't take any risk. You gotta go out on your shield and give yourself a chance to win. He can say he made it the distance with him, but so what? He didn't do anything.
PC: I hear this being said a lot and I want to let you touch on it a little bit, but I hear people say, "Well, Lil' Floyd is defensive as well. What would he do differently than Clottey?"
JM: First of all, you're talking about two totally different fighters. One fighter is flat-footed, lies on the ropes and allows people to beat on him. Floyd is a mobile fighter. Floyd isn't just defense. Floyd's defense is why he's moving and while he's actually throwing punches. He will make you miss while he's in the heat of the battle. Floyd makes you miss and makes you pay. Clottey doesn't make you miss. He allows you to hit him on the elbows and hit him on the arms and that's not really defense. There is no comparison to what Floyd does because it's not even the same thing, so for anybody to say that, they are asinine. You're talking about one guy who is a pure boxer, and the purest boxer in the history of the sport, that can actually hit you and not be hit and he right in your face at the same time. And then you got one guy that lies on the ropes and allows you to beat on him. That's the difference is that one is a boxer and one is a sitting duck.
PC: What did you think of Pacquiao and Freddie Roach's post-fight comments regarding your nephew?
JM: Listen, you hear so many things, but the only thing that made sense to me when they spoke on the fact of Floyd and Pacquiao fighting was when Max Kellerman said, in the closing of the show, that a writer said it's not about Floyd being scared of Manny. If Manny wants the fight, he will step up and take the test and that's what's killing the fight. There is nothing else killing the fight. Every time that subject comes up, it seems to get lost and disappears. I watched the fight and it's one of those situations...Jim Lampley, oh my God, what was that? Anything that Pacquiao did, he got belligerent about it. When he went on that "****, ****, ****" tirade, Pacquiao wasn't even landing any punches. My God, he got too caught up in the moment. If you listen to him, you would have thought you were watching a very exciting fight. One guy was throwing punches and one guy playing defense, that's it. None of the punches were even landing at the time when he was going ****, ****, ****. I was like, "Wow!" You know what's funny? I fell asleep on that fight. It couldn't hold my interest. That's how boring the fight was. I predicted that type of fight because I know how Clottey fights, but I didn't think it would be that boring. Clottey is a guy that is defense first and covers his head so that you don't have a chance to hit him on the chin. Like I said, anybody that compares his style to Floyd's is asinine and they don't know anything about boxing. You can't even elaborate with someone that would even let that come out of their mouth.
PC: I felt Clottey's trainer was pretty honest with him. As a trainer, how frustrating is it when you're telling your guy he's losing every round and he has to take a chance and they go out there and do the same things that they had been doing?
JM: At that point and time, the fighter has basically taken the fight away from you. He's not allowing you to be the trainer; he's doing what he wants to do and you just so happen to be a voice in the corner. He's taking your job away from you because, in his mind, he's already thinking, "I don't care what you say. You can say anything you want to, it doesn't matter." At that point and time, your job doesn't even mean anything. It was about him and how he was going to end the fight. I like the fact that the guy was completely honest with him. "Dude, you lost every round, when are you going to take a chance?" Clottey was also honest to come out and tell the truth, "He threw so many punches, I couldn't do anything and I didn't want to get caught." You don't want to get caught? This is boxing. This is the biggest fight of your life.
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