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VANCOUVER – Joshua Clottey’s date with boxing history will be thorny as he will defy a tremendous 5-1 odds in facing the world’s most respected and best boxer pound-for-pound Manny Pacquiao for the WBO welterweight championship on March 13 at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. If it is not the 31-year-old Pacquiao that Clottey will be facing, we can safely conclude that it will be walk in the park for the five feet and eight inches Ghana banger nicknamed “Grand Master”.

Clottey (35-3, 20 KO’s) owns five straight sterling victories against fancied rivals since losing by unanimous decision to then WBO 147-lb king Antonio Margarito on December 2, 2006 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Among his notable victims were Diego Corrales (UD 10), Felix Flores (UD 10), Shamone Alvarez (UD 12) and the slippery Zab Judah (TD 9). The 32-year-old Clottey also destroyed Jose Luis Cruz (TKO 5) on April 3, 2008 in Brooklyn, New York to send a curt message among the best welterweight fighters in the world. Although he lost a hairline 12-round split decision to Miguel Angel Cotto in his last fight on June 13, 2009 in New York, Clottey is still considered as a serious contender for world title.

Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38) isn’t taking Clottey lightly. The Filipino superstar is back to serious business in as far as his preparations are concerned and his training regimen is being doggedly administered by the one-two punch combination of Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza at the fabled Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. Whether it is Oscar De La Hoya, Juan Manuel Marquez or Clottey that Pacquiao is fighting does not make any difference: the training quality and intensity are the same.

In fact, it is Pacquiao who has everything to lose and nothing to gain if Clottey will pull a king-size upset on March 13. Every boxing fan in the globe expects Pacquiao to make a mince meat of the black fighter from Accra and when they square off for the WBO bauble and their expectations will turn into gargantuan disappointment once the fight will last the distance  and Pacquiao won’t be able to stop Clottey.

Pacquiao is expected to dispose of Clottey and capitalize on the sweet victory to win in the May elections where he is a candidate for a seat in the Philippine legislature in the district in Mindanao. A loss to Clottey will of course obscure his chances to win a congressional seat as fight fans might put the blame on his interest in politics and suspect that he did not train hard to seal the victory.

But Pacquiao is Pacquiao is Pacquiao. A disciplined fighter and one of the most smart world champions to ever walk on planet, Pacquiao will move heaven and earth to keep the crow he wrested on a violent 12th round TKO win against Cotto.

It’s only Clottey’s misfortune to be paired against the best world champion in the world today and he must do his best to at least finish the 12-round rumble with his main faculties intact.