pac8888111 By Gavin “Neds” O’Connor: It’s a done deal sighed sealed and delivered and this delivery will be as distasteful and unwelcome as a letterbox full of overdue bills and tax demands. I am indeed talking about the news that the WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) and WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) are contracted to fight in Macau, China on November 22nd.

The deal was brokered by Top Ranks Bob Arum and Joe Deguardia from Star Boxing in what is sure to be a career high payday for the 30-year-old Algieri whose previous best purse was against former WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov in June 14 in a fight that Algieri won a shocking 12 round split decision win. $100k was the reported purse for the Provodnikov fight for Algieri.

For the Pacquiao fight the early indications reporting that Algieri will receive more than a million and a share in the pay per views. Clearly this is a win-win situation for Algieri who only last year was completely unknown to the vast majority of boxing fans he now finds himself facing a boxing icon and living legend in Pacquiao.

Now it is also clearly a lose-lose situation for Pacquiao and Top Rank, because this is a very, very hard fight to sell to hardcore boxing fans. I personally can’t see good numbers for this fight and find it hard even to justify it as a pay-per-view fight. Pacquiao (with more than a little help from Arum) is leaving himself wide open to criticism from boxing fans by fighting a little known fighter from the 140 pound division.

In strictly boxing terms business matters aside this fight might not help Pacquiao’s image. I know the choices are limited with Juan Manuel Marquez having showed little if any interest in a 5th fight with Pacquiao, and Tim Bradley unfit to make the date and the ongoing differences between promoters and networks but not to this point.

As a Pacquiao fan, I can’t justifiably agree with this choice and fell let down by his choice of opponent. This is just my honest view