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Joshua Clottey thankful to Mundine for opportunity, knows American comeback will be tough

Joshua Clottey thanked Anthony Mundine for giving him a bigger stage opportunity this week in Australia, his first widely-seen fight in four years.

Former welterweight titlist Joshua Clottey returned to the headlines this week with a smashing, five-knockdown win over Anthony Mundine in Australia, and now hopes to get himself back into the world title mix, this time as a junior middleweight.

Clottey said that Mundine moving down in weight over the years likely affected his ability to take strong punches from a fighter more natural at the weight.

"He's a brother to me now. In boxing, if you fight at super middleweight, and you come down to middleweight, and you come down to light middleweight, it's going to be a problem," Clottey said after the fight in his in-ring interview. "I knew he would be a bigger guy, but my strength, because I'm a natural 154, if I hit him, he's going to go down. That's what happened."

The 36-year-old Clottey (38-4, 22 KO) is looking to get back in the race in the United States next, but admits that it will be a task, given his last widely-seen performance in 2010, his infamously dull loss to Manny Pacquiao.

"I want to climb a mountain. It's going to be tough in America, because it was very disappointing, my fight with Manny Pacquiao," Clottey said. "So everybody writes me off. Mundine giving me a chance to fight with him is a blessing to me. I'm going to be on his shoulders to go up. I really thank him for the opportunity, and I'm going to use the opportunity."

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