Pacquiao-Algieri: Who gets the cutting edge?

Raring to honestly be at his best, WBO junior welterweigt titlist Chris Algieri has reportedly started working out in earnest a full month before formally opening training camp for his world title challenge against Manny Pacquiao in November.

Algieri, 30, a licensed dietician working for a doctorate in nutrition, is also making sure he gets the perfect super diet for the biggest, most daring assignment of his pro boxing career.

So far, there has been no word on Pacquiao’s training plans, except that, as head coach, he would be training his KIA Motors team in the Philippine Basketball Association in the same facility where he would work out for his defense against Algieri in Macau.

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There were, however, intriguing deficiencies on the part of both fighters that started to surface after Team Algieri initiated a verbal offensive in a bid to sell the WBO welterweight championship, mainly to the American PPV audience.

There’s the poor punching power on the part of Algieri, who has only eight knockouts in 20 wins.

For Pacquiao, there’s the defensive defect characterized by inferior head movement, which Algieri obviously plans to exploit, based on earlier pronouncements.

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Like it or not, Pacquiao and Algieri have no choice but work on these weak points for their scheduled championship to at least be both colorful and thrilling.

A failure on the part of either fighter could end in disaster, with the bout slipping into a tasteless mismatch.

On the other hand, the championship could indeed rise into a classic—that’s if both fighters take time out to gain the cutting edge.

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Algieri has made it no secret that his main weapon will be his jab which, he claimed, would be the great equalizer.

Yeah, Freddie Roach sneered, “He has a jab, that’s it!”

Actually, Algieri need not be told that, in order to be aptly combative against Pacquiao, he should add a form of viciousness to his jab, or inject necessary venom to it.

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Anyway, if it had escaped Algieri, Roach was trying to make it clear that the over-exposed Algieri weapon, which the famous trainer had seen close-up raw, could pose no danger to Pacquiao’s health.

For this weapon to be effective, they must convert it into solid weapons of assault, not merely foils meant to annoy.

For Pacquiao though, the certified Filipino firefighter can’t afford to just wade in carelessly, a lesson Ruslan Provodnikov learned the hard way in losing his junior welterweight crown to Algieri.

In fact, records bear it out that Pacquiao had been knocked out cold twice in his career—by Arnulfo Torrecampo in 1995 and Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012—after digging in with his chin uncovered.