Manny Pacquiao – Chris Algieri: Breaking it Down By the Numbers

 Loading ...

By Lou Eisen

In less than 24 hours, Chris Algieri’s, 20-0, 8 KO’s 15 minutes of fame along with his Cinderella-like story will come to a crashing end. Algieri will soon find out that scoring a controversial win over the one-dimensional but very exciting Ruslan Provodnikov is a far cry indeed from fighting the extremely talented and multi-dimensional WBO world welterweight champion, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao, 56-5-2, 38 KO’s.

The 12 round battle fight will take place at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, in Macao, Macao S.A.R., China. Algieri was awarded this fight because of his split decision upset win over the former WBO junior welterweight world champion, Provodnikov. There were many observers who, after witnessing the Provodnikov-Algieri fight, truly believed that Algieri won that fight. I am not among them.

Algieri enters the ring this Saturday night with a substantial advantage over Pacquiao in the areas of height and reach. Algieri stands 5’10” whereas Pacquiao stands one half inch over 5’6”. Algieri’s reach, as measured from the armpit to the tip of the fingers is 72 inches compared to Pacquiao’s reach of 67 inches. Will these marked differences have an outcome on the fight? Well, that depends on the way these two warriors apply their respective battle plans. The rule of thumb in boxing is to exaggerate your disadvantages in order to make them advantages in your favor. Ergo, Pacquiao should fight from a crouch, making himself even smaller, thereby offering Algieri even less of a target to aim at.

This should be a very good fight because Algieri is a classic stand-up counter puncher while Pacquiao likes to attack. The only thing Pacquaio and Provodnikov have in common other than that they are both trained by Freddie Roach, is that they love to come forward to force the action in their respective fights. However, that is where the similarities between them come to an abrupt end.

Unlike Provodnikov, Pacquiao is an extremely difficult target to catch flush as he is always moving his head from side to side and he is constantly giving his ring rivals new angles to look at. Because he is constantly moving and using the entire ring, Pacquiao will not come at Algieri the same way twice throughout the fight. This will make it very difficult for Algieri to find a comfortable groove during the fight. If Algieri is unable to get comfortable during the bout, he will be in for a much more painful night than even he imagines.

Another and perhaps more important difference between Pacquiao and Provodnikov that will definitely impact the outcome of the Pacquiao-Algieri bout is that Provodnikov needs to set his feet to punch with power. Pacquiao, on the other hand, is able to generate power with both fists while constantly moving around the ring. Pacquiao only sets his feet after he has already nailed his opponent with two or three good shots in a row. This will be just one more thing that Algieri will have to contend with if he hopes to pull of an upset.

Undoubtedly the most difficult adjustment for Algieri will be the fact that while Provodnikov threw one shot at a time, Pacquiao throws all of his punches in combinations. Pacquiao likes throwing five and six punch combinations with both hands from all angles, which is almost impossible to defend against. When you add speed to that equation then the mixture becomes truly dangerous. The rumor is that if Pacquiao beats Algieri in spectacular fashion, then there is a possibility that he will finally fight Mayweather next. However, boxing fans have heard this rumor for the past seven years or more and it seems no more plausible today than it did back then.

Nevertheless, the Internet was abuzz this week with speculation that a Pacquiao knockout victory over the unheralded Algieri would earn him a one-billion dollar payday versus Mayweather. Promoter Bob Arum said that if the fight were sold as a PPV event in China, it could generate in excess of 350 million PPV buys in China alone, not including North America and the rest of the world. If that doesn’t motivate Pacquiao to go all out for a KO then little else will.

Pacquiao can’t worry about the future right now or at least until he beats Algieri. Overlooking Algieri in favor of Mayweather would allow the proper set of circumstances to occur for Algieri to score an upset. Also, Mayweather has pulled this same ruse many times before. If Pacquiao defeats Algieri, as well he should, then it is a lock that Mayweather will find yet another excuse for backing out of a fight with Pacquiao.

Algieri is still living in his parent’s basement in Huntington, New York. If he can somehow pull off the upset of the decade and manage to defeat Pacquiao, he will then have earned the keys to the penthouse suite for the foreseeable future.