By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, wanting to cover his bases, says he inserted a rematch clause in the contract for the November 22nd fight between his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao and his non-Top Rank opponent Chris Algieri.
Arum wanted to make sure that if the 35-year-old Pacquiao gets beaten by Algieri, he’ll be able to get him a rematch so that he can try and avenge the loss and win back his WBO title. But if Pacquiao does lose to Algieri by getting out-boxed, Arum might not be doing the Filipino star any favors by having him fight Algieri a second time.
If Pacquiao can’t beat Algieri this time around then chances are that he’ll lose to him again unless he’s lucky enough to get a questionable decision. It’s not as if Pacquiao will be getting any younger if he chooses to fight a rematch against Algieri next year.
“Yes, there is,” said Arum to Philstar.com in speaking about a rematch clause. “I put a rematch clause that if Algieri wins I could force a rematch. That’s if Manny is willing to do it. But with the Algieri fight, Algieri is not under our promotions and I wanted to put it in to be safe for Manny. You never know boxing,” Arum said.
It’s more like you never know what’s going to happen when you’ve got an older fighter with a lot of mileage on him like Pacquiao fighting a taller, younger and more mobile fighter like Algieri. This is a fight that very well could go wrong for Pacquiao if Algieri chooses to box him the way he did Ruslan Provodnikov last June.
When Algieri is using his jab and moving around the ring, he’s almost impossible to hit with anything. Pacquiao is giving up a half foot in reach and four inches in height to the 5’10” Algieri, and that’s going to make it nearly impossible for Pacquiao to land more than one punch at a time. He’s not going to be able to count on Algieri standing in one place making it easy for him the way his last two opponents Tim Bradley and Brandon Rios did.
Those guys fought the perfect fight for Pacquiao to look good by them just standing there in front of him. It’s unclear why Bradley choose to slug with Pacquiao, because in hindsight he gave the fight away by choosing to punch with him instead of using his movement like he did in their first fight. Algieri won’t be making the same mistakes that Bradley did. He’s too smart for that.
Pacquiao might be better off going in another direction and facing someone else rather than fighting Algieri a second time if he loses to him. I’m sure Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach will be giving him some good advice if he loses the fight. It’s a bad style match-up for Pacquiao for him to be fighting a guy like Algieri, because he’s not a stationary fighter like the guys that Pacquiao has has been continually matched up against during his career.
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