Manny Pacquiao came to North Texas; Manny Pacquiao saw North Texas and Manny Pacquiao conquered North Texas.  From the very moment it was announced that the world's finest fighter (pound for pound) would be plying his trade at the world's finest venue (bar none), North Texas was abuzz.  We're not exactly talking about a traditional fight town, yet Manny Pacquiao successfully hit the ground running, with the ferocity of a tsunami and single handedly converted it into Las Vegas-Southwest, during the days leading up to the affair.

By fight night, anticipation and Jerry Jones' wildest dreams were exceeded as 50,994 showed up to Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, March 13th.  It was the third largest fight crowd in modern American history, behind only Ali-Spinks II and Chavez-Whittaker.  And the 7-weight world champion did nothing to disappoint the assembled masses, though the same cannot be said about his opponent, Joshua Clottey (but more on that in a bit).

The Event
The promotion was billed "The Event" and it proved to be a fitting moniker.  The last time the North Texas paid attention to a boxing match en masse was when Evander Holyfield fought the hapless Jeremy Bates.  Local celebrities, mostly Dallas Cowboys and homegrown former world champions, populated the proceedings, but things were on a much larger scale when the name "Pacquiao" was placed on the marquee.  Former Cowboys coaches, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer, were on hand along with former and current players, Troy Aikman, Tony Dorsett, Deion Sanders, Drew Pearson, Charles Haley, Marion Barber, Miles Austin and others.

In addition to the expected heavy presence of "America's Team" was former president, George W. Bush.  The boxing world was represented by the likes of Kelly Pavlik, Miguel Cotto, Brian Viloria, Jorge Arce, Marco Antonio Barrera (who I had the pleasure sitting next to in the media dining area), Tony Ayala, Sr., Lamont and Anthony Peterson, Samuel Peter, Ben Tackie, Pauly Ayala and a plethora of North Texas fistic talents.  Academy Award winning actor, Robert Duvall and former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant, Mario Lopez, were in the house as well as elite level scribes, Thomas Hauser, Michael Marley and Bert Randolph Sugar.  If you hold it, they will come and the stars certainly did.

The Main Course
Despite a less than scintillating undercard, the assemblage was quickly whipped into a frenzy by a stellar video package displayed on the world's largest high definition screen.  Pacquiao and Clottey highlights were shown along with those of iconic boxing figures of yesteryear.  I was initially cynical about the prospect of enduring three national anthems, but was pleasantly surprised by the voice of the gentleman who sang the Filipino version.  Then, Jerry Jones added his special touch by having three of his A-list Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders sing the American version.  In a near impossible feat, the ladies sounded almost as good as they looked.

Both combatants were the picture of relaxation during their ring walks; Clottey shimmied to an African jam enough to make Cory Spinks, Roy Jones, Prince Naseem Hamed and Luis Yanez jealous, while Pacquiao smiled and waved his way to the ring, as usual.  Earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to speak with trainer, Freddie Roach, about Pacquiao's easy going nature and how that conflicts with his aggressive, almost manic style of fighting.  Roach revealed that Manny's metamorphosis takes place when he kneels down to pray in his corner, moments before the fight.

As the opening bell rang and they engaged one another, it was apparent that Clottey was the much larger man.  He fought behind a high guard, threw some jabs and was knocked slightly off balance with a right hand.  Pacquiao smartly flurried to Clottey's ever present arms and began sneaking in body shots just under and to the side of his elbows.  In the second, Clottey began landing what would prove to be his most successful shot of the night, a lead right hand.  Pacquiao immediately answered with a flurry and as Clottey mocked him by feigning being hurt, the Filipino superstar raised both gloves over his head, signaling "Let's go!"  If Clottey won a round in the entire fight, it would have to be the 3rd.  He began by connecting with an uppercut and a nice lead right.  As Pacquiao continued with the body attack, Clottey responded with body shots of his own.  This conjured a flurry from Manny, but Joshua flurried right back when the "Pac Man's" salvo ended.

Pacquiao began to rely on movement and angles in the 4th while still concentrating his efforts on the torso.  Since Clottey's gloves were glued to his head, Pacquiao playfully touched his ever present high guard with both hands, simultaneously.  This drew a warning from referee, Rafael Ramos, and laughter from the 51,000 people in the building.  Pacquiao tried to make Clottey initiate exchanges in round five, but Clottey seemed content to maintain his paltry work rate.  By the sixth, a clear, distinct pattern had formed; the smaller Pacquiao bringing the fight to Clottey, battering his arms, ribs and midsection and badly outworking him.  Clottey generated the occasional "ooh" with a left jab, uppercut or lead right, but his punches were few and much too far in between.

Fueled by chants of "Manny, Manny", Pacquiao continued his two-fisted assault and on the off chance that Clottey attempted a shot, Pacquiao's superior hand speed would beat him to the punch.  A right cross and a right hook landed on separate occasions, as Clottey briefly opened up, but he immediately went back into his protective shell the moment contact was made.  Anytime Clottey showed the slightest inclination to press the issue, he awakened the gargantuan beast residing in the diminutive Pacquiao.  This made for one of the easier fights to score that you'll ever see and Pacquiao was the winner by unanimous decision, 120-108 and 119-109 on two other cards.  Though not always the case, the final punch-stats were the story of this fight.  Pacquiao threw more than 1,200 punches in defense of his WBO welterweight title while Clottey came in at just under 400.  When one guy throws 800 more punches than his opponent, a scorecard isn't even necessary.

The Post Fight Press Conference
Afterward, for the first time in his career, Clottey (35-4, 21 KO's) had no choice but to accept that he'd been soundly defeated.  "In my other fights, they say I lost but I know I won.  But tonight, he beat me.  He was just too fast."  Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38 KO's) was gracious as always.  "He was very strong and a very good defensive fighter."  Sporting shades to cover the slight nick and bruising along his eye's, Pacquiao cut his post-fight press conference short to get to his concert, where ticket prices were priced at $100 apiece. 

All credit to Manny Pacquiao; he had a well sculpted punching bag in front of him, yet he never stopped trying to dish out some hurt.  Clottey, on the other hand, reinforced the toughness that we all knew he had, but with a minimum guarantee of $1.5 million, you'd like to see him actually try to win the fight, as opposed to just surviving it.

The Undercard
As noted earlier, "The Event" undercard left a lot to be desired as a whole.  On paper, the bouts appeared to be fan-friendly but the paper didn’t make its’ way to the ring.  The paid attendance tried their best to remain enthused, but the fights didn't always comply.  When you can hear a pin drop in a room filled with more than 50,000 people, there’s a problem, but such was the case.  When the action waned, the fans entertained themselves by doing the wave and voicing their displeasure at the minor glitches that occurred with the HD screen.

In the lead-in to the main event, Humberto Soto picked up the vacant WBC lightweight title with a unanimous decision over David Diaz.  It appeared that Soto might be on the verge of stopping Diaz in the very first round, when he dropped him with a beautiful right hook-left hook combo and sent him back to his corner with a cut over his right eye.  Unfortunately, the majority of the remaining rounds were sleep inducing, as Soto (51-7-2, 32 KO's) was content with maintaining distance and counterpunching, despite clearly exhibiting his ability to hurt Diaz (35-3-1, 17 KO's).  In the last 10 seconds of the bout, Soto punctuated a wild exchange with a winging left hook which sent Diaz to the canvas again.  Soto was the unanimous winner by scores of 115-111 and 117-109 (twice).

"The Contender" standout, Alfonso Gomez, defended his WBC Continental Americas welterweight title with a sixth round stoppage of the badly faded Jose Luis Castillo.  Gomez (22-4-2, 11 KO's) was the aggressor throughout and really stepped it up in round four, landing a boatload of right hands to the head and body of Castillo (60-10-1, 52 KO's).  After the fifth, Castillo whispered to his handlers and the bout was stopped.  It was apparently one too many battles for this entertaining warrior, who hinted at retirement at the post-fight press conference.

The pay-per-view opener featured "Irish" John Duddy (29-1, 18 KO's) against Michael Medina (22-2-2, 18 KO's).  The action wasn't half bad in this affair, but neither man was able to land enough telling blows on the other.  Duddy squeaked by with a split decision 93-96 (twice) and 96-93.