Chris Algieri believes Manny Pacquiao has the talent and the punching power to cause an upset against Errol Spence Jr in their fight on August 21.
For one of the rare times in the former eight-division world champion Pacquiao’s 26-year pro career, he’s the underdog with the oddsmakers and the fans.
Most boxing fans believe the 5’9 1/2″ Spence is too big, too young, and too strong for the 5’5 1/2″ Pacquiao, who hasn’t knocked anyone out in twelve years since 2009.
Pacquiao has failed to score a knockout in his last 16 fights, although he did come close to stopping Algieri in 2014. Manny dropped Algieri six times in the fight, and likely would have knocked him out if he’d pressed him hard in the championship rounds.
Pacquiao, 42, is returning to the ring after two years away to challenge the unbeaten young gun Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) for his IBF & WBC welterweight titles on FOX Sports pay-per-view in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacquiao can’t be counted out
“Absolutely. Not only is it one of those things where you can never count out Manny but I never count out Manny,” Algieri said to the DAZN Boxing Show.
“He’s one of those guys, he has the one-punch power, he has that speed and he’s awkward. He sets traps, his off-beat rhythm. His ability to change throughout a fight. The best make adjustments,” said Algieri.
It sounds like Algieri is going a tad bit overboard in saying that the 42-year-old Pacquiao has “one-punch” power at 147. Pacquiao would have a ton of knockouts on his resume in his last 16 fights instead of a big fat zero if that were the case.
Pacquiao does have power, but he’s a guy that wins his fights nowadays by decision and NEVER by knockout.
If Pacquiao tries to go toe-to-toe with the young lion Spence, he could live to regret it. That would be a colossal mistake on Manny’s part to shoot for a knockout against Spence.
Pacquiao will be grounded down by Errol’s body shots the way Shawn Porter was if he tries to go to war with him.
“The guys who can adjust are the guys who separate from themselves,” said Algieri said. Manny does that as good as anyone, even at that advanced age.
“He’s got a punch, he’s got power, if he can walk Spence into these shots, we could get an upset,” said Algieri.
It’s more likely that if there’s going to be a knockout in this fight, it’s going to be Spence, the one doing it. Really, it depends on what frame of mind Spence is in.
The way Spence fought Mikey Garcia and Shawn Porter, it looked like he didn’t want to knock them out because he respected them.
If Spence chooses to keep Pacquiao in the fight out of his admiration of who he is and what he’s achieved, he’ll allow him to go the 12 round distance. But if Spence is in the mood to get Pacquiao out of there, he likely achieves that goal.
One could take Algieri more seriously with his analysis of the Spence vs. Pacquiao fight if he hadn’t been so thoroughly dominated by the Filipino superstar.
Algieri is obviously high on Pacquiao after he treated him like a punching bag in their fight seven years ago in 2014.
