Joshua Clottey is a retired Ghanaian professional boxer who has a net worth of $3 million.

Joshua Clottey competed professionally from 1995 to 2019 and is best known for holding the IBF welterweight championship and facing several of the biggest fighters of his era, including Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito, and Zab Judah. Nicknamed "The Grand Master," Clottey developed a reputation for his exceptionally tight defense, physical strength, and durability. He completed his career with 41 victories, 24 by knockout, five losses, and one no contest. Remarkably, he was never stopped in any of his defeats.

Clottey became IBF welterweight champion in 2008 by defeating Judah and later fought Cotto in a closely contested championship bout at Madison Square Garden. His largest stage came in 2010, when he challenged Pacquiao before more than 36,000 paying spectators at Cowboys Stadium in Texas. Although Clottey lost a wide decision, the fight produced the biggest payday of his career.

Unlike many elite boxers of his generation, Clottey did not accumulate tens of millions of dollars in purses. He later said that only his fights against Cotto and Pacquiao generated significant personal wealth and that management fees, trainer expenses, taxes, and other costs consumed much of his earnings from earlier bouts. Clottey invested his major paydays in real estate in Ghana and has said rental properties in areas including East Legon and Weija became an important source of income after boxing.

Joshua Clottey was born on October 6, 1977, in Accra, Ghana. He grew up with an interest in soccer before gravitating toward boxing and eventually became part of Ghana's strong amateur boxing tradition. Clottey represented Ghana at the 1994 Commonwealth Games before turning professional the following year.

Boxing also ran in the family. His brothers Emmanuel and Judas Clottey competed professionally, and Joshua eventually left Ghana as he pursued opportunities abroad. He spent time in the United Kingdom before establishing himself in the United States, where many of the biggest fights of his career would take place.

Clottey made his professional debut in 1995 and won his first 20 fights, 14 by knockout. His first defeat came in 1999 when he challenged Carlos Baldomir for the WBC International welterweight championship in London.

Clottey was ahead in the fight but repeatedly clashed heads with Baldomir. After being penalized for an intentional headbutt and then committing another foul, he was disqualified in the 11th round. It would remain one of only five official losses of his professional career.

Clottey rebounded and continued climbing the welterweight rankings. He won the African Boxing Union welterweight championship in 2001 and later captured regional titles as he established himself in the United States.

By the middle of the decade, he had become a legitimate contender in one of boxing's deepest divisions.

Clottey received his first opportunity to win a major world championship on December 2, 2006, when he faced WBO welterweight champion Antonio Margarito in Atlantic City.

Clottey performed exceptionally well during the early rounds and appeared capable of producing an upset. The fight changed after he injured his left hand while punching Margarito during the fourth round. Clottey's output dropped dramatically, allowing Margarito to take control over the second half of the bout.

Margarito won a unanimous decision, with judges scoring the contest 116-112, 116-112, and 118-109. Clottey later maintained that he had been in control before the hand injury limited his ability to punch.

The defeat did little to damage his standing. In April 2007, Clottey defeated former lightweight and junior lightweight champion Diego Corrales by unanimous decision in what proved to be the final fight of Corrales' career.

Clottey's breakthrough finally arrived on August 2, 2008, when he faced Zab Judah for the vacant IBF welterweight championship in Las Vegas.

The fight was stopped during the ninth round after Judah suffered a cut caused by an accidental clash of heads. Under the rules, the bout went to the judges' scorecards, and Clottey was awarded a unanimous technical decision.

The victory made Clottey a world champion for the first time.

His IBF reign lasted into 2009, but he did not lose the championship in the ring. Clottey vacated the belt rather than face mandatory challenger Isaac Hlatshwayo because he had the opportunity to fight Miguel Cotto for the WBO welterweight championship.

Clottey faced Cotto at Madison Square Garden on June 13, 2009, during Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend in New York City.

Cotto dropped Clottey with a jab in the opening round, but the fight quickly became much more competitive. An accidental clash of heads opened a deep cut over Cotto's left eye in the third round, and Clottey increasingly found success as the fight progressed.

CompuBox credited Clottey with landing 222 of 622 punches compared with Cotto's 179 of 723. Nevertheless, the judges were split. Two scored the bout for Cotto, 116-111 and 115-112, while the third scored it 114-113 for Clottey.

Cotto retained his championship by split decision. Clottey strongly disagreed with the verdict, and the fight remains one of the most debated results of his career.

The bout was also an important financial turning point. Clottey later said he earned $750,000 from the Cotto fight, although contemporary boxing reporting placed his guaranteed purse closer to $550,000. Either figure represented substantially more than he had been accustomed to earning earlier in his career.

A few months later, Clottey received the biggest opportunity of his career.

Negotiations for a blockbuster fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. had collapsed, leaving Pacquiao searching for another opponent. Clottey was selected to challenge him for the WBO welterweight championship at the newly opened Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on March 13, 2010.

The event drew 36,371 paying spectators, generated a gate of more than $6.3 million, and sold approximately 700,000 pay-per-view subscriptions.

Clottey's defense-first approach that night became as famous as the fight itself. He spent much of the contest behind a high guard while Pacquiao attacked relentlessly. Pacquiao threw more than 1,200 punches compared with fewer than 400 from Clottey and won by unanimous decision, with scores of 120-108, 119-109, and 119-109.

Clottey was guaranteed at least $1.25 million. Years later, he said he had personally negotiated his compensation up to $1.35 million plus a limited share of pay-per-view revenue.

He also became increasingly outspoken about the financial arrangements surrounding the fight. Clottey said his manager was entitled to 33% of his earnings and that he believed the Pacquiao negotiations should have produced a much larger payday for him.

Clottey's career provides an instructive example of how misleading headline boxing purses can be when estimating a fighter's wealth.

In a 2023 interview, Clottey said the Cotto and Pacquiao fights were essentially the only two bouts from which he made substantial money. He described many of his earlier purses as being in the $15,000 to $30,000 range.

From those amounts, Clottey said he paid 33% to his manager and 10% to his trainer, along with taxes, a second trainer, a cut man, and other expenses. In some cases, he estimated that roughly half of his purse was gone before he received his personal share.

Clottey later said the Pacquiao fight taught him never again to allow someone else to control the financial side of his career.

Clottey fought only once during the three years following his Pacquiao defeat, stopping Calvin Green in the second round in November 2011.

He returned more seriously in 2013 after signing with Star Boxing. Clottey defeated Dashon Johnson by unanimous decision and then traveled to Australia for a fight that became one of the strongest performances of his later career.

In April 2014, Clottey faced Anthony Mundine in Newcastle, Australia. He knocked Mundine down five times over 12 rounds and won a wide unanimous decision to capture the WBA International super welterweight title.

The victory briefly placed Clottey in contention for another major fight. He was scheduled to face Canelo Álvarez later in 2014, but Álvarez withdrew because of an ankle injury.

Clottey defeated Jorge Silva by unanimous decision in 2015 before losing to Gabriel Rosado later that year. He subsequently returned to Ghana and recorded two stoppage victories in 2019, finishing his professional career with a record of 41-5 with one no contest and 24 knockouts.

Clottey's most important financial decision may have been what he did with the money from the Cotto and Pacquiao fights.

Rather than dramatically increasing his lifestyle, Clottey put money into property in Ghana. He has credited longtime friend and Ghanaian soccer player Laryea Kingston with encouraging him to use his boxing earnings to build and buy real estate.

Clottey later said he accumulated several rental properties in East Legon and Weija and continued earning income from them years after his boxing career had slowed down. East Legon in particular developed into one of the more expensive residential areas of Accra.

In a 2022 interview discussing his finances, Clottey said his rental properties allowed him to continue living comfortably despite no longer earning major fight purses. He encouraged younger athletes to prioritize owning property rather than spending their earnings on short-term luxuries.

Clottey was known for one of the strongest defensive shells in boxing. He typically stood upright with both gloves held high in front of his face, absorbing punches on his arms and gloves before looking for opportunities to counter.

His physical strength and chin made him extremely difficult to hurt. Across 47 professional fights against several world champions, Clottey was never stopped.

That defensive ability could also make him frustrating to watch when he became reluctant to open up offensively, most famously against Pacquiao. At his best, however, Clottey combined defense with accurate combinations and enough physical strength to compete with elite welterweights.

After leaving top-level competition, Clottey returned much of his attention to Ghana. He has worked with younger boxers in Accra, offering advice and occasionally training or sparring with developing fighters.

Clottey has also publicly advocated for greater investment in Ghanaian amateur boxing. He has argued that the amateur system that helped develop fighters from his generation is essential if Ghana wants to continue producing world champions.

His post-boxing finances have centered largely on the real estate portfolio he assembled with his biggest purses. Clottey's career never produced the enormous earnings of Pacquiao, Cotto, or several of his other famous opponents, but his decision to convert a relatively small number of major paydays into income-producing property gave him a financial foundation after his fighting career ended.