Pacquiao vs. Clottey

With his fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. all but off, Manny Pacquiao has instead agreed to fight Joshua Clottey on March 13 at a site to be determined, Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach told ESPN's Brian Kenny on Friday.

The Pacquiao-Mayweather bout, which had also been tentatively set for March 13, was called off Wednesday night by Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, after mediation failed to resolve their issues over drug-testing protocol.

But Mayweather Jr. maintained Thursday night that he still wanted to fight Pacquiao.

Clottey (35-3, 20 KOs), a 32-year-old from Ghana living in New York, last fought in a split decision loss to welterweight titlist Miguel Cotto on June 13, a fight many believed Clottey won.

Clottey had last been slated to fight Carlos Quintana on Dec. 5. The undercard bout that was called off when Kelly Pavlik pulled out of the main event against Paul Williams with a lingering hand injury.

The final issue in the negotiation for the Pacquiao-Mayweather megafight was drug testing.

They agreed to unlimited random urine testing, but Mayweather also insisted on random blood testing, even though the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which would oversee the bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, requires only urine testing.

Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38 KOs) didn't want blood testing but later relented and agreed to three blood tests: one during the week of the kickoff news conference, which would have taken place next week, one random test to be conducted no later than 30 days before the fight and a final test in his dressing room after the fight. Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) would be subject to the same testing procedures.

When they could not come to an agreement, Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions, which represents Mayweather, turned to a mediator, retired judge Daniel Weinstein, who had successfully mediated a series of disputes between Top Rank and Golden Boy in 2007.

But after nine hours in mediation on Tuesday in Santa Monica, Calif., and further attempts to come to a resolution on Wednesday failed, the fight was pronounced dead by the Pacquiao camp.

I hope this doesn't happen. Clottey gets lazy, stops throwing punches, couldn't even outwork Cotto, when Cotto had blood all in one of his eyes.

Risky move by Arum . Clottey has a tight defense and granite chin.