WBO Welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, left, of the Philippines, and WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri of United States, right, pose for photographers during a news conference in Macau, Monday, Aug. 25, 2014. AP
American Chris Algieri will complete a rags to riches “real-life Rocky” story against Filipino star Manny Pacquiao on Sunday — just a year after he almost quit the sport.
The date was November 2, 2013 and the would-be doctor from Long Island, New York, had just watched heavyweight Magomed Abdusalamov almost die in the Madison Square Garden ring against Mike Perez.
Russian Abdusalamov went a gruelling 10 rounds against slugger Perez, suffering fractures to his cheekbones and hands. The next day he would be in a coma after emergency surgery to remove a blood clot on the brain.
He finally left hospital just two months ago in a wheelchair, unable to speak.
“A year ago, I was ready to quit,” Algieri said at the Venetian Macau, venue for his multi-million dollar bill-topping battle against the legendary eight-weight world champion Pacquiao on Sunday morning local time.
Algieri felt his career was flatlining — his small town fights were not even being televised — and what he had witnessed in New York City that night shook him to the core.
“The Russian kid who almost died, we had the same record. He was 17-0. The guy was undefeated and one fight and he was in a coma,” said Algieri, who at the time was heavily in post-student debt after completing a degree in health science and a master’s in clinical nutrition.
“I went to my promoter Joe DeGuardia and said, ‘Listen, that guy (almost) died. I’m done’.”
DeGuardia convinced him to take another fight and suddenly Algieri, whose biggest purse to that point had been less than $10,000, made a breakthrough.
In February he outpointed Emmanuel Taylor, at the time ranked number four light welterweight by the International Boxing Federation. A world ranking and a title shot followed.
Few gave the little-known Algieri any hope in June against the fearsome Russian WBO light welterweight champion Ruslan Provodnikov.
Boxing clever
That feeling intensified when Algieri was knocked down twice in the first round.
But Algieri hadn’t read the script. Just like Rocky in the movie, he bravely got up and, despite his right eye being swollen shut for the rest of the fight, he boxed clever and won a split decision.
Against Taylor he had picked up the biggest purse of his career to date, $15,000. That increased to $115,000 for beating Provodnikov, which Algieri wisely used to clear his student loans.
And just nine months on from the Taylor fight his reward, win or lose come Sunday, will be in seven figures, albeit dwarfed by Pacquiao’s reported $20 million pay day.
His remarkable, rapid rise from complete unknown to an undefeated (20-0) world champion, taking on one of the greatest fighters of his generation in Pacquiao, prompted promoter Bob Arum to dub Algieri the “real-life Rocky” in Macau this week.
It is clear that the 82-year-old Arum is impressed by the clean-cut Algieri, who is a promoter’s dream: intelligent, good-looking, smartly dressed and eloquent.
“This kid is wonderful,” Top Rank’s Arum told AFP. “I mean, this story is incredible. He really is like a real-life Rocky.”
Algieri’s first million-dollar-plus payday this weekend will comfortably fund him when he chooses to go back to his medical studies, but the 30-year-old of Italian/Argentine descent says becoming a doctor can wait.
“We’ll see how long this career lasts, or how long I want to do it for,” Algieri said.
“I want to do it now as much as I can, and as much as I want to. It’s all about passion for me. If I ever lose my passion, I’m out.”
Unlike a year ago, he doesn’t intend that to be any time soon. If the result against Pacquiao is a heavy defeat, it may just change his mind.
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