At today’s press conference in the Philippines, Freddie Roach, the vocal trainer for WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs), took the opportunity to point out that some of Pacquiao’s sparring partners are better than Chris Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs), who Pacquiao will be fighting on November 22nd on HBO Championship Boxing from the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort, Macao, in Macao S.A.R., China.
The sparring partners that Roach is likely referring to as being better than Algieri are Mike Jones and Viktor Postol. They are certainly good fighters, and it would be a toss-up if Algieri were to face either of these guys.
Roach said that the sparring partners are “better than our opponent. Sometimes the truth hurts.”
The thing is it really doesn’t matter if some of Pacquiao’s sparring partners are better than Algieri are not. The reality is he’s fighting the 5’6” Pacquiao, not the 6-foot Mike Jones or the 5’11” Viktor Postol. Against those guys, Algieri, 5’10”, would have few advantages, because both guys are around the same height at him. But against the aging 35-year-old Pacquiao, it’s a different story altogether.
Algieri will have a four inch height and a six inch reach advantage, and that might be all he needs to pull off an upset. You couldn’t even call it a huge upset at this point in Pacquiao’s career, because he’s clearly not the same fighter that he once was years ago. We’ve seen that in his loss to Juan Manuel Marquez and his defeat at the hands of Tim Bradley.
“The jab is the best punch in boxing,” Roach said. “We have to take that jab away from him. We have a game plan on how to do that. We’re working on it every day, and that’s why Postol has been brought in. He gives us a good idea what to expect in the fight.”
Even if Pacquiao trains with Postol 24/7 at trying to handle the jabs from the taller fighter, it still likely won’t help him deal with Algieri’s jab, because he has a completely different rhythm and fighting style as Postol. Algieri is much more mobile fighter than Postol, and he’s capable of jabbing on the move, something that none of Pacquiao’s current sparring partners can do.
It’s hard to take anything Roach says as serious, because he’s made a lot of predictions over the last four years in terms of Pacquiao’s fights, and he’s frequently been wrong.
