By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach has brought two sparring partners – Mike Jones and Stan Martiniouk – from the United States with him to the Philippines to start helping WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) with his sparring to get him ready for his title defense next month against unbeaten challenger Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) for their boxing match on November 22nd at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, Macao S.A.R., China.
The Pacquiao-Algieri fight will take place at a catch-weight of 144 pounds.
#1 WBC Viktor Postol is expected to fly over and join the sparring partners for work with the 35-yuear-old Pacquiao. Trainer Freddie Roach wants taller fighters that can get Pacquiao ready for the 5’10” height of Algieri, but unfortunately none of the guys that he currently has fights anything close to how Algieri fights.
“I brought along two sparring partners. The two others are still coming. The first sparring session will be on Saturday,” Roach said via sports.inquirer.net.
Pacquiao is going to have a really tough time trying to adjust to the things that Algieri does in the ring because none of the sparring partners Roach has come up with have the fighting style that is anything like Algieri’s.
Postol throws lots of jabs like Algieri, but he’s nothing like him as a fighter. Postol is more of a flat-footed fighter who stands in front of his opponents looking to jab their heads off. He doesn’t move around the ring like Algieri does. The same applies with Mike Jones and Martiniouk. Both of those guys are stationary fighters with very little footwork.
Pacquiao needs to not only beat Algieri on November 22, but look good in doing so if he wants to keep alive in the Mayweather sweepstakes. Pacquiao wants the fight, but he’s got to keep winning and start looking good for a change.
This will be the third fight for Pacquiao since he was knocked cold by Juan Manuel Marquez, and this fight presents a step up from the last two guys that Pacquiao has faced. He’s beaten Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley. There are far better fighters in the welterweight division than those guys. Even Algieri is arguably better than them, because he’s able to move and he’s a good defensive fighter.
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