Manny Pacquiao to fight unbeaten Chris Algieri

By: Mark Giongco - 10 years ago

Manny Pacquiao. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Manny Pacquiao will fight unbeaten American Chris Algieri next.

According to a report posted on ESPN.com, the Filipino boxing legend Pacquiao and Algieri, who upped his stock by taking the WBO light welterweight title away from Ruslan Provodnikov last June, will meet in the ring on November 22 at the Cotai Arena at the Venetian in Macau, China.

“We have a deal. On my end, it wasn’t a hard deal at all. I came up pretty much with what they were looking for and then Joe and Artie had to sit down with Algieri and cut it up fairly amongst themselves,” Top Rank head Bob Arum told ESPN.com, referring to Algieri’s promoters Joe DeGuardia and Artie Pelullo.

The 30-year-old Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) is also reported to be earning the biggest payday of his career of more than $1,000,000 against Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs).

“He’s very happy. He’s happy for the opportunity,” DeGuardia told ESPN.com‘s Dan Rafael. “I’m ecstatic we’ve been able to give him this. It’s a great feeling. You work hard you develop him up the ranks. He fought off TV for a long time, he got on TV and now this. It’s really rewarding to see him get this opportunity and a payday that will change his life.

Chris Algieri. Screengrab from YouTube

“He’s wants the fight and has no problem going up in weight. He wants the welterweight championship. He wants challenges. He loves the idea. He wanted to fight for another championship and he loves that he is fighting Manny Pacquiao for it. He looks as Manny as an elite of the game. He wants to climb another mountain. If he wins this fight, you have the start of another era,” DeGuardia added.

Algieri, a nutritionist and former kickboxer, showed great resolve in his previous fight when he bucked two first-round knockdowns to outpoint Provodnikov last month.

“I think it’s an interesting fight between him and Manny,” Arum said. “I’m excited. This is a college-educated kid, a good boxer, the kind of kid who will draw interest other than the just the hard core boxing fan.”

“Manny is 100 percent for it,” Arum also said. “I told him I was coming along with it. He said Algieri seems like a nice young man and he saw his fight with Provodnikov. Manny said he thought it would be a good fight and he was OK with fighting Algieri.”

Pacquiao, 35, who will give up five inches in height and reach against the Long Island, New York native Algieri, scored a vengeful win over erstwhile undefeated Timothy Bradley via unanimous decision to reclaim his WBO welterweight belt last April.