By Chris Williams: WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) will be meeting up with WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) on November 22nd in Macao, China.
Algieri says that the biggest puncher he’s ever had to handle in the ring was when he sparred Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs), not Ruslan Provodnikov. Algieri was really impressed with Maidana’s punching power when the two of them sparred together, and he sees him as a dangerous threat with either hand. He says both hands are very powerful.
“Marcos Maidana is the hardest puncher I’ve ever dealt with,” Algieri said to Esnewsreporting.com. “Both hands left or right [are powerful]. The guy hits hard. He’s very, very strong. Me and Chino had some really heated exchanges at times,” Algieri said.
Algieri will be facing a guy that obviously doesn’t have Maidana’s punching power in 35-year-old Pacquiao on November 22nd, and the main thing Algieri needs to worry about in this fight is the speed of Pacquiao. Algieri can’t stand in front of Pacquiao and let him tee off on him the way he did briefly in the 1st round against Ruslan Provodnikov last June in his last fight.
Pacquiao likely won’t be able to knock Algieri out, because he seems to have lost power as he’s gotten older, but he’ll win rounds.
Maidana’s punching power very will be rendered useless for him on September 13th in his rematch against Floyd Mayweather Jr, because he’s going to make it tough for him to land any of his shots by not presenting a stationary target for him. Mayweather already let Maidana get his shots off in their fight last May, and he’s not going to be letting him get any freebees on September 13th.
If Maidana is going to land his big power shots, he’s going to need to work for it by tracking Mayweather down by cutting off the ring and landing his shots then. But I don’t expect Mayweather to stand still long enough for Maidana to land one clean shot.
Maidana punches hard, but because of his lack of hand speed, his opponents can see his punches coming and brace for them. Mayweather will see Maidana’s shots and block them or at least brace for them.
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