By Dan Ambrose: Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) a huge underdog in his fight against WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) on November 22nd at the Venetian Casino & Resort, in Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. Algieri has no worries though, because he expects the odds to get a lot closer in the next three months before the eventually get in the ring on 11/22.
Algieri expects that the odds-makers will change their mind about him slowly but surely as they watch him workout, listen to him talk, and learn more about him.
“We are three and half months away. Those odds will tighten up as the world sees my hard work and dedication,” Algieri said to thesweetscience.com.
Since HBO won’t be showing any of Algieri’s sparring sessions on the Pacquiao-Algieri 24/7 episodes, it’s unclear how boxing fans are expected to see Algieri’s hard work and dedication in order to change their opinion about him. If he means that fans will change their mind about him after seeing him hit a speed bag or a heavy bag, I don’t think that’s going to do the job.
Any fighter can look good hitting a bag. But for Algieri to change the minds of fans about this fight is going to be next to impossible for him to do. There’s too much tape out there of Algieri’s previous fights against the likes of Emmanuel Taylor and Ruslan Provodnikov, and he can’t convince fans that he looked like a superstar in either of those fights.
At best, some boxing fans might end up liking Algieri’s personality after watching the Pacquiao vs. Algieri 24/7 episodes on HBO, but that’s probably about the most they’re going to get from watching those episodes. They’re not going to see the entire series and come away with it saying that Algieri is going to beat Pacquiao, because we just saw Algieri barely beat Provodnikov.
Algieri was on the canvas twice in that fight, and probably the only reason why he wasn’t finished off was because Provodnikov didn’t have the sense enough to know that he needed to throw combinations rather than looking to load up with one shot at a time.
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