By Chris Williams: Former Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) victim Brandon Rios believes that Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) has the boxing skills, reach and height to defeat Pacquiao in their fight on November 22nd in Macao, China.
Rios says he sparred Algieri twice in Oxnard, California and he found him to be an outstanding boxer with excellent skills. Rios wasn’t awed by Algieri’s power, but he says that his reach and movement made him a really tough fighter to deal with.
Pacquiao has been fortunate lately with the match-making done by him that he’s not been put in with guys that are a lot taller than him. That’s obviously not an accident. Even when he was matched against two guys in the past in Oscar De La Hoya and Antonio Margarito, both of them were so weight drained that they were too weak to put up a fight.
For this fight on November 22nd, Algieri will get the benefit of the catch-weight with the fight taking place at 144 pounds. Algieri fights at 140, so he’ll be better off for this fight than he normally is.
“Algieri’s a great boxer. He don’t have power, but he’s a great boxer,” Rios said to Hustleboss. “I’ve worked with him both times. That’s why I told him that he would beat Provodnikov and out-box him. Algieri has the reach and if he stays on the outside [against Pacquiao], Algieri will do great.”
Rios is correct about Algieri having the reach and boxing skills to give the 35-year-old Pacquiao fits in this fight. As long as the 5’10” Algieri keeps the action on the outside, he’s going to have a huge advantage against the tiny 5’6” Pacquiao.
Algieri is good at using his height and reach to his benefit. He’s not one of those fighters like Margarito, who gives up his height by standing a foot away from his opponents. Algieri believes in keeping the action on the outside so that he can use his powerful jab and his long reach.
A loss here for Pacquiao would ruin his dreams of getting a fight against WBA/WBC welterweight champion, Danny Garcia and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. The door to the Mayweather fight would likely be officially closed for good. It’s possible that Garcia and Canelo might still fight Pacquiao at a later date after he redeems himself, but you can pretty much forget all about them fighting him any time soon because it would be a bad time for them to be fighting him. Pacquiao would most likely be facing Algieri in a rematch to try and avenge his loss and recapture his WBO 147 pound title.
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