Was pacquiao a disapointment in this match like clottey was in his match against pacquiao?
nah, Clottey was the ultimate disappointment vs pac.. That night, he could have shocked the world IMHO.
Was it the constant having his guard up throughout the entire fight? What do you think would have happened if clottey faced mayweather instead of pacquiao at that time?
Clottey's previous fight was against zab judah and miguel cotto and he was more active then, so if he did that it would have been better in the pac fight. But IMHO I don't see any thing in his previous fights that would make it difficult for pacquiao if he was more active, that would put him more in trouble alot being hit from different angles, fighters when they fought pacquiao know his power and go defensive and when they go toe to toe they lose unless he is like marquez or barrerra who don't mind the hits to the face then it would have been just more entertaining but pacquiao's foot work would cause difficulty for clottey.
Clottey's best performance was against margarito but after losing that fight, he had to adopt a different tactic, maybe become more defensive and box more and smart aggression.
It's like to beat mayweather don't box him but go aggressive but to beat pacquiao don't go aggressive but box him and that's what made the pacquaio vs mayweather fight sooo good, they both were each other's weakness. But pacquiao lost that aggressiveness after being ko'd and losing that fire and started to adopt a more boxing aggresive style which is bad against mayweather. If pacquiao who fought cotto and right after fought mayweather, it would have been even more so exciting and more explosive then this current mess of a fight that we saw.
I think Clottey had the formula THAT NIGHT, if he were to open up his offense more.. I don't think he would have won in a rematch. But I think he could have potentially stolen that fight on the cards, had he fired more shots from behind his impenetrable defense.
When you go into a full shell like that, it's fairly easy to block most fighter's offense.. but even Pac has traditionally been able to penetrate that. He couldn't penetrate it AT ALL that night. So in theory, if Clottey were to have fired off his decent jab more from behind that shell, and followed it up occasionally with power shots, I think he could have made it a very interesting fight... but only for that fight, not a rematch.
So I think Clottey just had a *chance* to steal a decision that night. Stealing a decision can still be impressive, especially given Clottey had no real chance according to anyone.
Clottey is really good at throwing shots out of a full shell like that.. not many people are. That's a very difficult way to box. So he just really had to accept some more risk, which is easier said than done. I mean technically Pac's speed froze him.. So Pac deserves the credit for making Clottey useless.
Clottey had huge potential.. That Pac fight kind of ruined him because people saw him play it extremely safe in a fight against next level competition.
As for Pac vs PBF, I really don't think there's any version of Pac which can beat PBF. Pac is too small. The only way to beat PBF is to overpower him with strength/size, and even then it's almost impossible -> PBF is too fast.. He's a cobra charmer like I always say. The more dangerous you are, the easier it is for him to tame you.. because everyone who is so dangerous, is not used to not being able to touch their target at all.. PBF is just playing that flute, shutting down your ability to box properly. Your only chance is to rough him up and make it a very dirty fight.. But you need to be "bigger".. Pac is just too small for that IMHO.. Pac could NEVER rough up Floyd.
I really wanted to see GGG / PBF.. I still think PBF wins that. GGG would get tamed like everyone before him IMHO.
*Maybe* Anthony Joshua could beat floyd..... lmao.
Maybe i'm biased but I think Floyd is one of the greatest BOXING geniuses of all time. He isn't the most exciting fighter in the 147+ weight class, but he was absolutely destroying people in lighter weight classes.. He has brittle hands and knows who he is as a fighter, he never tries to be something he's not ... ie, like Berto trying to fight like Floyd using a philly shell and getting massacred. Most fighters seem to "change", whether it's the crowd influencing it, anger, pre-hype fight, wanting to prove something, etc.. There's subtle or large changes between fights. Floyd used the same formula to defeat "everyone". It's Floyd's defensive genius that makes him undecryptable. He's perfected his style. Floyd imitators usually get wrecked.
Zab Judah is arguably faster than Floyd, and had a few good rounds.. Floyd figured him out and made him useless.
Castillo is the only one to ever really "box" floyd and give him a real challenge IMHO.. but Floyd killed him in the rematch.
Floyd played with DLH also .. Seemed like he just wanted a massive rematch, but no one wanted to see it, so that backfired. lmao.