Bojado, Clottey good to go!
Intriguing co-feature for Gatti-Branco

January 19, 2004

By David L. Hudson, Jr.

Prospect Francisco “Panchito” Bojado wanted the bigger name. He wanted the former two-time world champion Jesse James Leija for his HBO date on January 24th at the Boardwalk Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Unfortunately, an injury to Leija forced him to pull out of the bout.

In walks Emmanuel Clottey, a tough opponent with a 21-5 record but without the world championship luster. Bojado said he was originally dejected that he would not face Leija. “I wanted to fight somebody of that caliber,” Bojado said of the former world champion from Texas. “I was already psyched up to fight him so I was a little disappointed when I heard the news. I had seen him fight when I was an amateur.”

However, Bojado insists he is not overlooking his new opponent — Clottey. It would be unfortunate for Bojado if he did not focus on his opponent, because Clottey already owns an upset win over previously undefeated and former Olympic gold medallist Mohamad Abdulaev. Behind on points, Clottey rallied with a stoppage in the tenth round.

Bojado acknowledges that Clottey’s win over Abdulaev is impressive. “I am excited about the fight with Clottey,” Francisco said. “He does have that win over Abdulaev. He is a strong fighter who keeps going forward. He keeps his jab out a lot. I am not overlooking him at all.”

The 20-year-old Bojado says that he has watched tapes of his opponents and thinks he can work effectively against his opponent’s style. “He fights a lot like Ike Quartey,” Bojado said. “A lot of the fighters from Ghana have similar styles. I really don’t see any other problems with his sort of style.” “Panchito” says he watched tapes of Clottey’s last three fights with his trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. and they have worked on ways to capitalize on the attacking Clottey. “We went over some of the mistakes he was making,” he said.

For his part, Clottey expressed tremendous gratitude for the chance to fight on HBO and repeatedly thanked Lou DiBella for working with him. “Thank you to HBO,” he said. “This is a great thing in my life. I am very happy to be working with Lou DiBella. I am very excited about this opportunity. I am so happy about fighting on HBO. I must prove to HBO and everybody else that I am tougher than him.”

Clottey praised his young opponent as a good, strong fighter but says he is ready to rumble — and to prevail. “Bojado is a good fighter with a good record. But I’m going to show that I’m tougher than him,” Clottey explained. “I am physically and mentally prepared for this fight and know that I must dig deep.”

“It may be a knockout or it may be a decision,” Clottey said of the upcoming showdown. “Anything can happen in the ring but if there is a knockout in this fight it will be by me.” When asked to compare Bojado with Abdulaev, Clottey said they were both strong fighters but that Abdulaev is stronger. “That is the only difference between them,” Clottey said.

Bojado aims to prove that this assessment is incorrect and that he is a future world champion. “In the sport of boxing, you don’t stop learning,” he said. “Even fighters like Oscar De La Hoya are still learning. I am not a novice but I know I still have a lot to learn.”

Clottey hopes that Bojado will learn a hard lesson on January 24th.

David L. Hudson, Jr. is a feature writer for Fightnews. He also is the co-author of the recently released Boxing’s Most Wanted along with Mike Fitzgerald. Questions or comments? Click here.