By Chris Williams: Unbeaten challenger Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) plans on taking advantage of Manny Pacquiao’s advanced age to try and wear down the 35-year-old with a fast pace in their fight on November 22nd at the Venetian Casino & Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
Algieri, 30, believes that the soon to be 36-year-old Pacquiao can no longer fight at a sustained fast pace for a 12 round fight, and this is something he’s going to use to make him show his age.
Algieri knows that Pacquiao is good when he’s fighting with plenty of rest breaks when fighting at a slow pace like the one we saw in his fight against Brandon Rios last November, but he’s not going to let him get those rest breaks on November 22nd. He’s going to make Pacquiao work three minutes of every round instead of just one round like we’ve seen in some of his recent fights.
“I’m going to be an entirely different fighter when I fight Pacquiao,” said Algieri to HBO. “I’m different every fight and I train specifically for every opponent, so we’re going to have a specific game plan for Manny.”
When asked if he planned on out-boxing the 35-year-old Pacquiao, Algieri said “Absolutely. I’m going to use my conditioning to push the pace that he’s not used to at this point in his career and look to dominate down the stretch.”
A fast pace approach to this fight could very well work for Algieri, because Pacquiao’s stamina is clearly an issue for him. He’s no longer knocking guys out as of 2009, and he’s forced to win his fights by decisions every time out.
Pacquiao, with his short legs, he’s never been good at moving around the ring against guys that used movement. His whole thing is attacking stationary fighters with in and out movement. Pacquiao does well with this. He can go forwards and backwards well in short distances. But when you make him move laterally around the ring, like we saw in his first fight against Tim Bradley, he gasses out and looks totally ineffective.
Bradley would have had a chance to beat Pacquiao in their rematch if he boxed him the same way he did in their first fight, but for some reason Bradley decided to fight Pacquiao’s fight by going straight at him. Even then, Bradley, a light hitter, staggered Pacquiao at one point in the fight and lost by scores that were still close. Had Bradley used lateral movement like he did in the first fight with him, he would have likely given him fits.
Algieri, 5’11”, is incredibly tall with an excellent jab and an ability to move for an entire 12 round fight. He’s honestly a nightmare opponent for Pacquiao at this point in his career.
Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach didn’t want this fight because he saw Algieri’s elusive style of fighting a big problem for Pacquiao, but it was Pac’s promoter Bob Arum who insisted on this matchup. Arum might be feeling sorry he made that decision on November 22nd if Algieri is able to beat Pacquiao.
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