MANILA, Philippines -- A sports columnist marveled at Manny Pacquiao’s work rate during the Filipino champ’s title defense against Joshua Clottey, citing the volume of punches thrown by the boxing icon in the Texas face-off.

“The CompuBox numbers were outrageous: Pacquiao let fly 1,231 punches -- more than 100 per round -- and landed 246 of them,” said Bryan Armen Graham in his column posted on Sports Illustrated (SI.com).

“Even more staggering, Pacquiao threw 832 more punches than Clottey,” he added.

Graham said Pacquiao’s performance speaks much especially against Clottey, who is currently considered as one of the top welterweights out there.

He added that the Ghanaian must have outweighed the World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champ by 15 pounds.

“This wasn't Oscar De La Hoya, a faded legend who'd outgrown the 147-pound division. It wasn't Miguel Cotto, who fought Pacquiao at a catch-weight of 145,” he said.

Speed vs size
John Scully, a former pro boxer and ESPN boxing analyst, said Pacquiao’s speed is definitely superior against Clottey’s. and this, he said, spelled the difference.

“People talk about Pacquiao's power but the speed and his lack of size that makes it so difficult [for Clottey]. He's just a freak of nature, he's not a big guy, he looks small but he's just a fast guy, a fast-handed guy,” Scully said in ESPN’s post-fight analysis.

Scully also said Clottey has failed to adjust against Pacquiao because of his fighting style.

[It’s] because of his style, it's not his nature to be that aggressive to do what you would need to do. Styles make fights they say, and in this case, [being aggressive is] what he would need to do to beat Pacquiao,” he said.

Scully added that Clottey had some successes with his frugal punching.

“If you put together 10 best punches that each guy landed, I think Clottey landed the 10 better shots. But there just weren't enough of them,” he said.