by David P. Greisman

It’s been more than five years since Joshua Clottey largely stayed in his shell in a unanimous decision loss to Manny Pacquiao, afterwardin blaming intestinal distress from a pre-fight meal.

He’s only fought four times since then, including a unanimous decision over Anthony Mundine in April 2014 in Australia. He was in line to face Canelo Alvarez late last year until Alvarez hurt his ankle. Clottey finally returned to the ring again on May 9, outpointing Jorge Silva.

“I went to Australia and I fought Mundine. I won the WBA international title. I knocked him down six times. I thought HBO and everybody out there would forgive me about the Pacquiao fight and give me the chance to fight with Canelo,” Clottey said after his win over Silva. “But they just took the fight away from me. It took me like three months, four months before I stopped thinking about it. I took this fight to get rid of the ring rust.

Clottey is 37 years old now and is 39-4 with 22 KOs. He asked fans not to give up on him

“Pacquiao fight is not the end of me. Boxers make mistakes,” Clottey said. “When you make mistakes, you come back and people have to forgive you. HBO has to forgive me and give me a fight with HBO.”

He’s now with Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing — though he doesn’t have a manager because, he said, “managers are all crooks.”

Clottey would likely need a win or two over a notable contender or prospect beforehe could get in with any of the big names at 154.

“Right now I’m looking for a good manager who’s going to take care of me and I’ll take it from there,” Clottey said. “I’m ready to fight with everybody.”

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com