Dibella wants Algieri vs. Berto

By Boxing News - 12/06/2015 - Comments

algieri100(Photo credit: Edward Diller/DiBella Entertainment) By Dan Ambrose: Last night, promoter Lou Dibella says he likes the idea of matching #6 WBO welterweight contender Chris Algieri (21-2, 8 KOs) against #5 WBC Andre Berto (30-4, 23 KOs) in a fight if he could. Dibella thinks it would be a good match-up if the fight could be made.

Algieri, 31, ended his two-fight losing streak last Saturday night in edging 2nd tier fighter Erick Bone (16-3, 8 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Algieri struggled badly to win the fight by the scores of 95-94, 97-92 and 97-92.

The most accurate score of the three was the 95-94 in my opinion. Algieri fought terribly and arguably only won the fight due to the questionable knockdown he was given credit for in the 8th, when Bone tripped over his left outstretched foot. Without the knockdown, I think Bone should have been given the victory.

Berto, 32, hasn’t fought since being clowned by Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September in an easy win for Mayweather. The fight was so one-sided that Mayweather has to really slow his game down in order to take it easy on Berto. If Mayweather had fought all-out, he would have likely knocked Berto out or caused the referee to step in and halt the one-sided contest.

“Algieri is a legitimate world class fighter,” promoter Lou Dibella said at the post-fight press conference. “He proved it again tonight. I mentioned the Berto fight, because it came into my head, and I thought it would be a hell of a fight. I think Algieri-Danny Garcia down the line, Algieri-Berto and Algieri-Spence. These are all good match-ups. Shawn Porter is here. Algieri is a good match-up for a guy like that,” Dibella said.

Surprisingly, #5 WBC Berto is ranked ahead of #10 WBC Errol Spence by the World Boxing Council. I think someone needs to send some video of Spence to the WBC’s headquarters so that they can get their rankings straightened out. Having Berto in front of Spence doesn’t make sense in my view. It’s a ranking that would have made sense 10 years ago, when Berto was still in his prime and Spence was 15-years-old, but it makes no sense now.

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Algieri vs. Berto would be a good fight because both guys are pretty flawed, and not major players at 147. But I think Dibella wouldn’t be doing Algieri any favors at all if he were to put him in with the likes of Spence or Porter. Those would be mismatches. Algieri doesn’t have the punching power to keep those guys off of him. I do think Algieri vs. Danny Garcia would be a good fight, because Garcia is a badly flawed fighter who has arguably been beaten by light punchers in the past against Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson.

Garcia won those fights by controversial decisions. Garcia would be a winnable fight for Algieri if he chose to box with him rather than slug. Algieri can’t afford to slug with Garcia because he would get beaten up like he was against Manny Pacquiao.



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