Joshua Clottey will use his feud with Freddie Roach as motivation for next weekend's daunting WBO Welterweight championship bout with Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino pugalist. The 32-year-old Ghanian is one of many admirers of Pacquiao, who is a seven-weight world champion, but that respect does not extend to Pacquiao's trainer, Roach, after the American's verdict that his charge will knock Clottey out when they meet at Cowboys Stadium on March 13.
"I'm going to fight because of somebody," Clottey said, as he prepares for the bout in New York. "I'm fighting Pacquiao, but I'm fighting somebody else outside the ring. Nobody knows. I'll let everybody know after the fight. It's my secret." However, it appears the mystery man is none other than Roach, if Clottey's manager, Vinnie Scolpino, is to be believed. "He wants to beat Freddie Roach. That's his motivation," Scolpino said. "He wants to put him in his place. He beats Pacquiao, he puts Freddie in his place, too.
"Roach says he [Pacquiao] is going to knock him out." Scolpino said Clottey was offended by the prediction. "I'm in the best shape of my life," said Clottey, a former IBF Welterweight champion, whose record stands at 35 wins with three losses and one no contest. Pacquiao, named Fighter of the Year for the last two years and Fighter of the Decade by the Boxing Writers Association of America, is making his first defence of the title he won by stopping Miguel Cotto in the 12th round of their fight last November in Las Vegas.
Clottey gets his chance to claim arguably the most prized scalp in boxing because of the Filipino's fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr falling through over arguments on dope testing. * With agencies