Fans have long since felt something was amiss on the night back in 2010 when tough and capable welterweight contender, former IBF champ Joshua Clottey fought Manny Pacquiao in what was the biggest fight in the career of the warrior from Ghana. Clottey barely opened up during the fight that was held at Cowboys Stadium, instead fighting an almost exclusively defensive fight; this leading some fans to say then that Clottey basically threw the fight, with plenty of fans still feeling this way today.
Well, it turns out this suspicion was merited. Clottey, now aged 45 and retired, spoke with Prime Take, which airs on Joy News, and the former champion says he “deliberately lost” when he fought Pac Man – or, in his own words, Clottey “decided to blow it up.”
Why? Clottey was disgusted with the poor money he was going to get from the fight. Not only that, but he was angry at the contract he had regrettably signed with his manager; the deal still having three years to run before reaching its end. Clottey was not willing to give his all in the ring with Pacquiao.
“The manager [Vinny Scolpino] had already accepted $1 million as payment. I came in and negotiated $1.35 million,” Clottey said on the TV show. “It was a fight I was supposed to get $2 million as the pay. The pay-per-view was $100 for each viewer but he negotiated [only] $3 on my behalf out of the $100. Even with the $3, I could only earn my share after 300,000 buys. So if 300,001 people buy, I will earn only $3.”
“So you would basically fight for free?” Clottey’s interviewer, Muftawa Nabila Abdulai, asked him at this point.
“Yeah,” Clottey said. “I tried negotiating but they claimed if I can’t fight I should leave so I had to take the fight. Meanwhile, my manager was making 33 percent profit from each pay-per-view income including the fight money. I regret signing with that manager. I was supposed to make more money. I was not happy about the Pacquiao fight because I had three years on my contract with my manager so I decided to blow it up. I even went to his office to negotiate for him to take 25 percent so I take 8 percent but he said no.”
Joshua Clottey does seem to be a fighter who fell foul of a lousy deal, and though no fighter can ever be excused for turning in a non-effort the kind Clottey did against Pacquiao, it’s not that hard to understand why Clottey did what he did. Why fight hard, thus risking your very life, if you are being, for want of a better word, shafted?
Clottey, 41-5(24) was a far better fighter than he appeared to be on the evening of March 10, 2010, and now we know why the world never got to see “The Grand Master” offer much of a fight.
For the record, Pacquiao won by lopsided scores of 120-118 and 119-111, 119-111.