Algieri plans on using his jab to control Khan

By Boxing News - 05/15/2015 - Comments

algieri5By Scott Gilfoid: Former WBO 140lb champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs) says he’ll be making sure that he uses his jab as one of his main weapons against Britain’s Amir Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) in their fight two weeks from now on May 29th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Algieri, 31, feels that he got away from using his jab in his last fight against Manny Pacquiao last November. Before that fight, Algieri had always used his jab frequently in his fights to control his opponents.

Algieri also wasn’t too happy about how he failed to make adjustments against Pacquiao. He feels that he got stuck staying too committed to the original game plan that he’d been working with his trainer in camp before the fight, and he failed to adapt to the things that Pacquiao was doing in the ring.

Algieri feels that he would have been better off without a game plan for that fight, and just fighting the way he normally does rather than him sticking to a rigid plan that kept him from being able to make the adjustments on the fly.

“If I keep the jab pumping like when I’m at my best, the combinations will flow freely,” Algieri said via newsday.com. “I have to get back to using my jab,” Algieri said. “That was a big strategic mistake to stay away from the jab because Pacquiao was so good at countering the jab.”

Algieri will need to bring more to the table than just a jab in the Khan fight because it’s going to take more than that for him to get a victory. If Algieri is smart, he’ll be working on his punching power to try and catch Khan with big shots whenever he can.

We’ve already seen that it doesn’t take a big puncher to hurt Khan. Willie Limond, who is hardly a big puncher, was able to knock Khan down in their fight in 2006. If a fighter like Limond was able to put Khan within an eyelash of knocking him out, then you can bet that Algieri can do the same thing if he connects with a good shot to the head.

Khan got in trouble in the Limond fight when he was attacking him and now showing any respect for his power. If Khan does the same thing against Algieri, we could see him get planted. And along with Khan getting planted, he can plant his dreams of a Mayweather fight because he’s surely not going to get a fight against him if he loses.



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