Pacquiao vs Clottey to take place at Cowboy stadium

According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, the bout between World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and challenger Joshua Clottey will be taking place at the Dallas Cowboy stadium, in Arlington, Texas. Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboy football team and Dallas Cowboy stadium, was very eager to land the Pacquiao-Clottey fight for his large stadium in Texas. Jones reportedly offered up $25 million site fee for the bout.

As such, the Pacquiao vs. Clottey bout will move ahead to March 13th. Floyd Mayweather was supposed to be Pacquiao’s opponent, but he made the mistake of asking for random blood tests to take place before he would fight Pacquiao. Although Manny was willing to take three of the tests, Mayweather wanted them to take place within the last 30 days before the fight. Pacquiao agreed on taking the last test at 24 days, but Mayweather wanted 14 days.

The Dallas Cowboy stadium would have been perfect for the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight, but it’s unclear whether they will be able sell it out or even come close to selling it out with the Pacquiao-Clottey match up. The stadium seats 100,000. Arum, however, thinks it’s going to be a huge event, even though Clottey isn’t a big star.

“This is going to be one of the biggest events in the history of boxing,” Arum says. It also might be a disappointment. Pacquiao has done well recently with big pay per view bouts, but he’s been blessed by a big name star opposing him. Clottey, good but flawed fighter, isn’t well known to casual boxing fans of the sport. He’s not an Oscar De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather.

This fight will be a good test to see how popular Pacquiao is. If he can sell out the Dallas Cowboy stadium against Clottey, there would be no reason for Pacquiao to waste time fighting a big named star like Mayweather in the future, even if Mayweather is agreeable to fighting Pacquiao without blood tests for PEDs. Pacquiao could then pick and choose and fight anyone in the top 10, and still do well.

Source: www.boxingnews24.com