By Cameron Gillon: Manny Pacquiao will defend his WBO welterweight title against the unbeaten young fighter Chris Algieri on November 22nd in Macao, China, but is Pacquiao underestimating his next opponent? In my opinion, yes.
Since the fight has been announced the only subject Pacquiao, his trainer Freddie Roach and promoter Bob Arum have spoke about is a possible mega-fight with long time rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. The whole saga started at the city press tour to build the fight between Pacquiao and Algieri, and through each event they would talk about the Pacquiao-Algieri fight. But as soon as Pacquiao, Roach and Arum were interviewed away from the press tour, they would talk about Mayweather and Mayweather only.
They should have been trying to build the fight with Algieri as best they can by talking about the fight and this fight only. We all know the problems in the past 5 years surrounding a Mayweather/Pacquiao fight it doesn’t look likely it will ever happen.
Pacquiao has been more focused on digging into Mayweather as much as he can, and this clearly shows his mind is not on Algieri at all. Even when Manny was asked about Algieri, he simply answered with a few words. This to me doesn’t make much sense at all. Pacquiao is arguably on his last run in his career. Another loss would surely end any chance of him getting a fight against Mayweather if it was to happen. Arum could match Pacquiao with Juan Manuel Marquez for a 5th fight or Tim Bradley or Brandon Rios until he retires, but no one wants to see that happen time and time again.
Algieri is being overlooked massively. We’re talking about a guy who is unbeaten, and he has a very awkward style for Pacquia. Algieri is tall and knows how to use his brain well, and has very good boxing skills. You just need to look at his last fight against Ruslan Provodnikov who is a very heavy hitter. Provodnikov put Algieri down in that fight early on and Algieri continued the fight with a completely shut right eye and went on to win a unanimous decision to claim the WBO light welterweight title. Ruslan even said after he need someone who will stand and trade with him to win fights and you have to think if Algieri can survive that much punishment of Provodnikov then he can adjust to Pacquiao’s style.
Algieri hasn’t really said much in the build up to this fight so far. He is a man that doesn’t lack confidence but he has a great balance in using that to his advantage. Algieri is keeping his mouth shut and is working and training hard behind the scenes and working on a good game plan to pull off a shock to the boxing world. Many fans are thinking this is a easy victory for Manny and a tune up for a bigger fight down the line. Well I can tell you now this fight is not a tune up or a relatively easy fight for Pacquiao. I believe Algieri is a more awkward fight than Bradley and Rios, who have were Pacquiao’s last two opponents. Pacquiao really needs to focus his mind on Algieri and forget about Mayweather until after this fight, otherwise you will be seeing Algieri pull out a victory to win a 2nd division world title.
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