By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs) is reportedly looking at new trainers and could possibly make a move in adding a new guy in his corner.
Algieri was thoroughly dominated by Manny Pacquiao last November in losing by a wild point’s decision in Macau, China. Algieri’s corner obviously wasn’t the reason he lost that fight. He was way out of his class in losing a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 119-103, 119-103 and 120-102.
It probably wouldn’t have mattered even if Algieri had Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach in his corner for that fight. Algieri was simply outclassed in every facet of the game.
“I am a loyal guy but I need to make the best moves for myself and for my career. We got very far on our own and learning as we went but Yes it may be time to increase the level of experience in the corner to compliment what we have been doing for years,” Algieri said on Reddit.com.
Adding a different trainer won’t solve Algieri’s lack of punching power. He’s always going to be a light hitter, and there’s a lot of guys at 140 and 147 that he’s not going to be able to beat by out-boxing them the way he did with Ruslan Provodnikov.
Algieri was just in the right place at the right time to get the Provodnikov fight, because a lot of fighters in the division would have beaten Provodnikov too if they had been in there with him. He’d already been beaten by Mauricio Herrera and never avenged the loss, so it wasn’t surprising that Provodnikov was beaten by Algieri.
Algieri started late against Pacquiao in their fight, and gave away far too many early rounds. Whether that was Algieri’s trainer or Algieri’s fault is unclear. Algieri certainly has to take responsibility for failing to step back and realize that it wouldn’t be a good strategy to give away the early rounds against a guy like Pacquiao.
That strategy might work if Algieri was a big puncher with the kind of power that would potentially plant Pacquiao on the canvas the way that Juan Manuel Marquez did in 2012, but Algieri didn’t have anywhere near the amount of punching power to rally in the fight.
Algieri can change trainers, but he’s going to need to be selective in the guys he faces if he wants to find success at 140. Guys like Terence Crawford, Danny Garcia, Lucas Matthysse, Lamont Peterson and Viktor Postol will likely give Algieri huge headaches. The same for Adrien Broner.
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