November 22nd in Macao, China
Talk about hitting the jackpot. Algieri is coming off a big upset win over Ruslan Provodnikov, who was originally going to be Pacquiao's opponent. Algieri made just $100,000 for that win, and now will be fighting in a multi million dollar fight against one of boxings biggest stars.
My take on this: it's a good fight. Algieri is fresh blood, someone new and his 5'10 frame, long reach and awkward style will give problems to Pacquiao. I'd rather see a fight like this than Marquez 400 or Timothy Bradley 3. The problem is this isn't PPV worthy since Algieri is little known. It would be a great HBO regular main event fight, but obviously HBO can't pay $20m purses. Expect low PPV's numbers for this, but the casino in Macao pays Top Rank absurd amounts of cash so I'm sure they don't care too much.*
Breaking down the fight/prediction: As noted, Algieri is tall and lean standing at 5'10, so he'll have a considerable height & reach advantage over Pacquiao. He is a boxer who uses movement, counter punching and a good jab. He has little power as shown by his 8 KO's in 20 fights so he rely's on his boxing abilities to earn decisions. He can take a punch as shown by fighting Ruslan and winning a decision over 12 (with a badly swollen eye). He was also a kickboxer before he turned 100% to boxing, going 20-0. His lack of experience in big fights will a big negative for him. Pacqiuao's speed is probably something he's never seen before. I expect Algieri to give Pacquiao a lot of problems early on, rounds 1-4, but eventually as the fight goes on Pacquiao becomes more and more accurate and scores his first KO in four years, stopping Algieri late either by accumulation of punches or cuts.
Chris Algieri (20-0)
5′10"
72" reach
orthodox
30 years old
Pacquiao (56-5)
5′6½″*
67"* reach
southpaw
35 years old
Talk about hitting the jackpot. Algieri is coming off a big upset win over Ruslan Provodnikov, who was originally going to be Pacquiao's opponent. Algieri made just $100,000 for that win, and now will be fighting in a multi million dollar fight against one of boxings biggest stars.
My take on this: it's a good fight. Algieri is fresh blood, someone new and his 5'10 frame, long reach and awkward style will give problems to Pacquiao. I'd rather see a fight like this than Marquez 400 or Timothy Bradley 3. The problem is this isn't PPV worthy since Algieri is little known. It would be a great HBO regular main event fight, but obviously HBO can't pay $20m purses. Expect low PPV's numbers for this, but the casino in Macao pays Top Rank absurd amounts of cash so I'm sure they don't care too much.*
Breaking down the fight/prediction: As noted, Algieri is tall and lean standing at 5'10, so he'll have a considerable height & reach advantage over Pacquiao. He is a boxer who uses movement, counter punching and a good jab. He has little power as shown by his 8 KO's in 20 fights so he rely's on his boxing abilities to earn decisions. He can take a punch as shown by fighting Ruslan and winning a decision over 12 (with a badly swollen eye). He was also a kickboxer before he turned 100% to boxing, going 20-0. His lack of experience in big fights will a big negative for him. Pacqiuao's speed is probably something he's never seen before. I expect Algieri to give Pacquiao a lot of problems early on, rounds 1-4, but eventually as the fight goes on Pacquiao becomes more and more accurate and scores his first KO in four years, stopping Algieri late either by accumulation of punches or cuts.
Chris Algieri (20-0)
5′10"
72" reach
orthodox
30 years old
Pacquiao (56-5)
5′6½″*
67"* reach
southpaw
35 years old