MANILA, Philippines - It’s either he hadn’t heard of the betting odds stacked against him or he’s just oozing with confidence.
Whatever it is, Johsua Clottey believes he’s got what it takes to wear down Manny Pacquiao and win it all.
If he wins, he said people shouldn’t think of it as an upset. Again, even if the betting odds say he just can’t.
“I will feel like I had a fight with Manny Pacquiao, the best fighter out there, and I won,” the 33-year-old told fanhouse.com.
“So even if I beat Pacquiao, and people talk about it like it’s a big upset, I’ll say, ‘It’s not an upset, but a win,’” said Clottey.
He has won 35 fights as a pro and only lost thrice. But he said in all those defeats, against Carlos Baldomir, Antonio Margarito and Miguel Cotto, he never felt like a loser.
“I’ve never left the ring feeling like I lost. I feel like I’m undefeated. If I win this fight against Manny Pacquiao, I will never feel like I beat the best fighter in the world.”
He has moved on in training even if his chief handlers failed to secure US visas and join him in his headquarters in Florida.
Lenny de Jesus, a former Pacquiao cutman, is in charge of Clottey’s training, and the fighter with the body of a track star said they can do it.
But it’s always easier said than done when you’re up against a fighter like Pacquiao, who often made his opponents feel they were surrounded up in the ring.
Pacquiao just throws too many punches from too many angles as great champions like Oscar dela Hoya, Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto learned over the last 13 months.
This makes Pacquiao the overwhelming favorite against Clottey and at -500 it means that you need to put $500 on Pacquiao just to win a hundred.
If you’re rooting for Clottey, and there may be very few of them outside Ghana, just a hundred bucks will give you $300 in return.
Pacquiao is favored in the March 13 fight that based on the odds the only way that could prevent him from winning that night is if a snow storm burries the whole of Arlington.
Again, Clottey thinks otherwise, against all odds.
“I’m in shape. I want to prove to the whole world that this a fight that I can win, and that they should be careful not to write me off,” he said.
On fight night, he’s got to prove a lot of people wrong.