Manny Pacquiao was nearing his date with future with Floyd Mayweather when he agreed to struggle Chris Algieri on the Cotai Enviornment in Macau on November 23, 2014.
Algieri, disrupting the best-laid plans, had secured his struggle with one of many best of all fighters 5 months earlier when defeating Russia’s Ruslan Provodnikov to win the WBO super-lightweight title and to file his biggest victory.
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Mayweather and Pacquiao had fought the most effective of their period whereas they resisted agreeing phrases with one another; Algieri, then undefeated and 30 years previous, was the ultimate opponent for both of them earlier than they shared a hoop.
“I by no means noticed myself combating Manny Pacquiao,” the American advised talkSPORT. “Once I was younger and climbing the ranks I used to be, ‘That’s the man – I’m gonna struggle Floyd Mayweather someday’.
“There was two guys on the time – Mayweather and Pacquiao. However Pacquiao fought Marco Antonio Barrera; Erik Morales; so small, by comparability. I by no means anticipated him to be wherever close to my orbit.
“Then the fourth Juan Manuel Marquez struggle occurred, and he received starched. Then, [two years later] he’s combating me. He was 35. However, he wasn’t previous.”
Algieri had been the underdog towards the heavy-handed, aggressive Provodnikov – also called the ‘Siberian Rocky’ – at Brooklyn’s Barclays Middle that June, however he as an alternative recovered from struggling two knockdowns within the opening spherical and resisted his proper eye swelling shut due to a damaged orbital bone to earn a break up resolution that modified his life.
“Bob Arum [the promoter, for Top Rank] doesn’t play checkers, he performs chess,” Algieri continued. “He all the time thinks upfront. His thought was that Ruslan Provodnikov was going to decimate me, in Brooklyn, in entrance of my hometown followers, after which he was going to get the Pacquiao struggle.
“Earlier than I even received up there [for my post-fight press conference], Bob says, ‘I’d wish to see that Algieri child struggle Manny Pacquiao’. That lights the image ablaze. The very first query I get is, ‘How’s the attention?’.
“After the attention scenario, it’s, ‘How do you are feeling about combating Manny Pacquiao?’, and I stated, ‘Yeah, after all’. That was just about how the struggle received bought.”
Recognising the magnitude of their contest and, above all else, the curiosity that existed in Pacquiao, HBO recorded a 24/7 sequence to doc each fighters’ build-up to their struggle.
“It was mind-bending,” Algieri recalled. “Folks say, ‘How was the Manny Pacquiao struggle?’ I say, ‘It wasn’t a struggle, it was an expertise’, as a result of it was months of preparation.
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“We did a seven-city press tour. Personal jets. It was uncontrolled. They’d us capturing pool and hitting home-run derbies. It was like nothing I’d ever skilled.
“I used to be getting raked over the coals. ‘This man’s a 30-year-old world champion; he’s going to be a millionaire, and he lives in his dad and mom’ basement.’
“The HBO crew got here to my home, and have been like, ‘I get why you didn’t transfer out – this place is nice’. My background – Italian-Argentinian tradition – you don’t depart till you get married.
“Getting ready for Manny Pacquiao is almost inconceivable. There’s actually nobody who fights like him. I received all of the sparring companions that Tim Bradley and all people used to struggle him – it’s not the identical factor. Being within the ring with him is a completely totally different factor.
“I had quite a lot of roadblocks in camp. It was the worst camp of my profession – to struggle Manny Pacquiao. However I didn’t have a alternative. Therapeutic from that harm correctly to prepare for struggle evening was actually, actually troublesome, after which I had quite a lot of exterior influences, as a result of it was the primary time being at that stage. By way of what an actual skilled camp is meant to appear to be, it was not an excellent camp.”
Algieri, who had moved as much as welterweight to struggle the Filipino for the WBO 147lbs title, was, on account of his superior peak and attain, marketed as greater than Pacquiao, enhancing his appreciation for Pacquiao’s dimensions when in Macau, Hong Kong, they lastly weighed in.
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“I keep in mind standing subsequent to him on the scales and saying, ‘This man’s greater than me – all people says he’s small’,” he stated. “I couldn’t imagine what he seemed like – we’d achieved the press tour collectively three months prior. He seemed tremendous human – it was loopy, how muscular and thick he was.”
He was in the end knocked down six occasions all through the course of a one-sided struggle that was adopted by phrases being agreed for Mayweather-Pacquiao for Could 2015 in Las Vegas.
He retired in 2021 on the conclusion of a 29-fight profession that earned him an induction into the New York State Boxing Corridor of Fame; more and more, in his roles with ProBox TV and Prime Rank, he’s recognised as among the many most articulate of commentators.
“I used to be actually impressed along with his boxing and understanding that he’s a rhythm fighter,” Algieri mirrored of the 12 rounds he shared with Pacquiao. “I’m a rhythm fighter as properly.
As soon as I discovered his rhythm I might see him realise it, after which he’d change it up. He was superb at off-beat rhythm. Regardless that that type appears random, it’s not – he’s very a lot in tune.
“As soon as I received my crosshairs on him he realised it instantly and made an adjustment. I hit him a few occasions to the physique and I might inform he didn’t prefer it – he was very uncomfortable within the ring with me, and really dialled in.
“However I might additionally sense when he was conscious of me discovering him. His skill to remain only a hair forward of me, all evening lengthy, made it a blowout. I wasn’t in that struggle in any respect.
“Not the toughest puncher – that was [Provodnikov]. However Pacquiao was, far and away, the most effective fighter I ever fought. I’d educated onerous; I used to be in good condition, which is why I made the space.
“I’ve watched it again one time – it was a horrible watch. I’m embarrassed by that efficiency as a result of I do know I’m higher than that evening. I cried.”
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