By Yannis Mihanos: After hitting the jackpot with his surprising victory over the heavy hitter Ruslan Provodnikov, Chris Algieri became a known fighter from virtually an unknown one. Suddenly many people in boxing know who Chris Algieri is.
So the question that automatically now surfaces is how much of a bad news is this new opponent for the people’s favorite champ and now WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao?
Pacquiao has to wait until the 22nd of November to fight. That’s for me the first bad news. All fans around the world with me included after that convincing victory over Timothy Bradley last April were expecting from Manny to fight more often than almost once a year.
Also fans from around the world expected Manny to fight some big name next like Juan Manuel Marquez (for the 5th time) or Floyd Mayweather Jr. But these two have made themselves unavailable with their extreme demands.
Still there are many other strong opponents that Pacman could select instead of Algieri: Robert Guerrero, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Miguel Cotto or even Provodnikov . But I guess the last one blew it by losing on points against Algieri.
But was it that enough for Algieri to fight Pacman? Algieri winning Provodnikov? Algieri certainly brings some other things on the table.
He has other martial art experience, his kick boxing record is quite identical with this of boxing 20-0. Clean boxing records are good foundation for setting big fights and that’s a fact. Look were Algieri is into now…
Chris is very well spoken and educated; that is more like it: someone who can talk nice in front of the cameras.
His clean cut American look can turn the crowd’s attention. Promoter Bob Arum liked very much the idea of him fighting Pacquiao instead of Provodnikov prior their bout, he sees the bigger potential.
Arum is confident that this will be a commercial success.
Algieri is a talented boxer who moves nicely in the ring and counter punches. He is much taller than Pacquiao: 5 ft 11 in (180 cm). Pacquiao is barely 5 ft 6 1⁄2 in (169 cm) tall.
I think this will be an advantage for Chris in the ring.
His style is also different than this of Pacquiao, he is more of a boxer than fighter and doesn’t like to get caught a lot. When he was caught early in the first round against Provodnikov, he was sent down to the canvas and there suffered his eye injury. His punch power is insufficient for Pacquiao to worry about.
What Pacquiao must worry though is if he does not execute early Algieri with a knock down. Algieri is not a big puncher but has guts, he proved that by going on for most of the fight against Provodnikov with the one eye closed. He has the will to win and continue at any cost. He can also steal many points with his mosquito pinch punch. So Pacman must not underestimate this.
I know that already most of the fans and writers of boxing articles here and there, have already heavily set for favorite of the fight Pacquiao.
This fight to most of the world looks more like a tune up fight. In logic this seems the normal first reaction but let’s not forget that this is boxing and strange things can happen. Sometimes all the statistics, all the expectations can go completely wrong.
That’s what happened in the fight of Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana, before the fight no one was giving a chance to Maidana. Look now what happened: Mayweather is facing again Maidana!
So let’s keep an open mind and see what happens.
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