Trainer Freddie Roach isn’t worried about Chris Algieri’s right hand for his fight against WBO 147 pound champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) on November 22nd. Roach’s main concern is to take away the jab from Algieri to keep him from using it to control the shorter Pacquiao, because Algieri has made it clear that he’s going to be jabbing Pacquiao all night long to keep him from getting his powerful shots off.
Roach thinks he’s got the perfect plan to take that jab away, and get Pacquiao in position for him to score a rare knockout.
Pacquiao doesn’t fight a lot of guys with a good jab so this will be a good opportunity to see if he can nullify a fighter that does have a good jab in Algieri.
“His [Algieri] right hand is nothing to worry about. Our job is just to take that jab away from him, and that’s really not that difficult,” Roach said via Newsday.com. “We took the jab away from [De La Hoya] by getting a little bit closer. That’s what we have to do is fight from a little bit shorter range and use the hand speed to its fullest.”
Algieri is very likely going to be looking to fight the same exact fight plan that WBA/WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr used in his recent win over Marcos Maidana. Mayweather used constant movement to keep out of the way of Maidana, and this enabled him to win a relatively easy 12 round decision.
Pacquiao is faster on his feet than Maidana, but he’s smaller and not really good at cutting off the ring. If Roach’s main plan is for Pacquiao to try and get as close to Algieri as possible like Pacquiao did against De La Hoya, we could see Pacquiao coming up empty all night long. Algieri,30, is likely training to face a pressure fighter on November 22nd, so he should be well-prepared for any of the tactics that Pacquiao uses.
