The Event in Cowboys stadium is a winner

Manny Pacqiao, Jerry Jones and the sport of boxing emerge triumphant

Jerry Jones' big gamble to bring big time boxing to his newly built Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas paid off huge as this past Saturday night's Manny Pacquiao versus Joshua Clottey match up netter the 3rd highest attended boxing event with a recorded 50,994 fans in attendance. Promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank Boxing has stated that he will look to stage more of these types of fights in high profile sports arenas and has a boxing card planned this summer at Yankee Stadium which will feature Miguel Cotto in the main event. They couldn't have picked a better template to follow than this weekend's showing at Cowboys Stadium. The pageantry which included a riveting rendition of the star spangled banner sung by three Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders and the enormous teleprompter hanging above the ring created quite a spectacle worthy of any major event in sports. Manny Pacquiao is an international sensation and a proven commodity in the sport of boxing who regularly provides the best bang for the consumer's bucks and he once again proved this by going after the powerfully built Joshua Clottey to win a 12 round unanimous decision.

The Filipino was defending his WBO welterweight title as well as his standing as the best pound for pound fighter in the sport. Top contender Clottey got into a defensive shell from the onset of the fight and never came out of it allowing Pacquiao to throw at will and sweep every round of the fight. In the early rounds it appeared as if the Ghanaian had a plan to pick off the champion's punches and counter with punches of his own but the Clottey counterpunches were not thrown nearly enough and soon looked to be put on the endangered species list. After a few rounds of this from Clottey it became apparent that Clottey was in survival mode. What little punches the challenger connected with seemed to be effective as a few uppercuts snapped the Filipino's head back and caused a mouse under his right eye. But inexplicably Clottey never sustained any type of attack much to the chagrin of his corner who desperately pleaded with their fighter to let his hands go. Without any danger of resistance , Manny Pacquiao boxed circles around his foe and scored a landslide decision on the judge's scorecards which read 120-108, 119-109, 119-109 for the champ. Pacquiao improves his record to 51-3-2, 38 KOs while Clottey falls to 35-4, 20 KOs.

What's next for Pacquioao is up in the air as he is up for election on May 10th for a seat in congress in his native Philippines. There is no telling what his future in boxing will be if elected even though another big money fight looms witht he winner of the Floyd Mayweather versus Sugar Shane Mosley fight on May 1st.

On the undercard Humberto Soto (51-7-2, 32 KOs) dropped former WBC lightweight champ David Diaz (35-3-1, 17 KOs) in the first and last rounds to secure a twelve round decision to win the vacant WBC lightweight title which was vacated by Edwin Valero.

Alfonso Gomez (22-4-2, 11 KOs) won by TKO against former lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo (60-10-1, 52 KOs) when Castillo would not come out of his corner for the sixth round. After the fight Castillo announced his retirement from boxing.

Weekend Notes

• Before this fight my all time favorite singing of the national anthem was not sung at all, it was performed by trumpet by legendary trumpet player Doc Severinson. I loved it because it was simple and most importantly QUICK. Nowadays at most big fights we might have the singing of four national anthems, if they come from other countries that's two anthems right there, then the good ol' USA anthem and if they happen to be on a casino that sits on Indian land there is another anthem. Some fights don't last as long as the playing of four national anthems. Doc made it short and sweet and then fans were treated to war. But last night after the playing of the Filipino and Ghanaian national anthems I was enthralled by the rendition of the star spangled banner as performed by three of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. Woah and wow. Jerry Jones I like your style. This ranks right up there with Doc and as a jazz man I'm sure he would have agreed with me.

• How could I have been so wrong. That is what I kept thinking as I witnessed the Alfonso Gomez vs Jose Luis Castillo mismatch. If you were keeping tabs, I had predicted that this undercard fight along with the Soto-Diaz affair had the potential to steal the show. Not only did it not steal the show, it had the potential to stink out the joint. Soto-Diaz was a decent fight but Castillo was a shell of his former self and Gomez didn't look like he had any zip in his punches whatsoever. Still I did not care for the way the HBO announce team trashed the efforts of Castillo. Anytime a fighter is involved in a fight like Corrales-Castillo or Gatti-Ward they should be afforded a little more respect after having fought their way thru hell and back.

• Had the chance to catch some fights broadcast from the Dominican Republic last Friday and was pleasantly surprised to see young super middleweight Julius Jackson (5-0, 5 KOs) in action. Jackson is the son of former middleweight great Julian "the Hawk" Jackson who is one of the greatest knock out artists that ever lived. If his son has a chance to be like his father than woe be unto the super middleweight division. For he will hellaciously knock some people out.