Manny Pacquiao dominated a strangely passive Joshua Clottey from the opening bell Saturday to retain his WBO welterweight title. With 50,994 fans – the biggest fight crowd in the US in 17 years – cheering him on at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Pacquiao made sure the result was never in doubt. One ringside judge gave Pacquiao every round, while the two others gave him all but one. The scorecards read 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109. It wasn't as flashy as his knockout of Ricky Hatton or as savage as the beating he gave Oscar De La Hoya, but there was no doubt Pacquiao was in command the entire way against Clottey, who kept his gloves up high in front of his face, rarely risking a flurry. The Ghanaian's strategy got him to the final bell, but he was never competitive in the biggest fight of his career. “He's a very tough opponent,” Pacquiao said. “He was looking for a big shot.” Pacquiao was supposed to have been fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. instead of Clottey, but the megafight between two claimants on the title of world's best pound-for-pound fighter fell apart over a dispute over blood testing. “I want that fight, the world wants that fight, but it's up to him,” Pacquiao said. That time won't come soon. Mayweather is fighting Shane Mosley on May 1, and the earliest the two could get together would be in the fall and only if Mayweather backs off his demands for blood testing. The fight this night was more of an event than a real competition, bringing in the biggest crowd in the US for a fight since Julio Cesar Chavez fought Pernell Whitaker at the Alamodome in 1993. It paid off handsomely for Pacquiao, though, who earned at least $12 million. The tone of the bout was set early, with Pacquiao advancing against his taller opponent and throwing punches with both hands from all angles. It was the same style that gave him spectacular wins in his past three fights and, though Clottey was clearly the bigger fighter, he rarely sought to use his reach advantage. Clottey's corner was urging him late in the fight to take some risks, but even in the final round when he needed a knockout to win, the Ghanaian only sparingly dropped his guard. “You gotta take a chance,” Clottey's trainer, Lenny DeJesus, implored him after the sixth round. “You're in a fight and you gotta start taking chances.” Clottey didn't, though, and his prize was that he was the first opponent in Pacquiao's past six fights to go the distance. The only suspense when it came time to announce the decision was whether the three ringside judges would give Clottey any of the rounds. “He has speed, I lost the fight,” Clottey said. “He's fast, that's why I was taking my time.” Pacquiao threw three times as many punches as Clottey, an average of 100 a round, and landed as many power shots as Clottey threw. Final punch stats showed Pacquiao landing 246 of 1,231 punches to 108 of 399 for Clottey. Clottey had got the fight off a good performance in his last bout against Miguel Cotto, but he was clearly more concerned with surviving the all out assault that Pacquiao is noted for than winning the fight. Pacquiao record now stands at 51-3 with two drawn and 38 knockouts while Clottey fell to 35-4. Soto beats Diaz World super featherweight champion Humberto Soto defeated David Diaz by unanimous decision to capture the vacant World Boxing Council lightweight title Saturday at Cowboys Stadium. Soto, who already had the WBC super featherweight belt, dropped Diaz once each in the opening and final rounds and raised his record to 51-7-2 to win a 12-round decision by judges' scores of 117-109, 117-109 and 115
