Look who compromised Yankee honor

There was one brief, shining moment in Macau last Sunday when Chris Algieri strutted out, boots on the ground, and started firing sharply in the direction of Manny Pacquiao at mid-ring after the bell signaling the 11th round had been rung. Algieri was suddenly a fearless warrior, shooting firm and mean, daring to stand within hitting distance.

It was the first time in his scheduled 12-round duel with Manny Pacquiao that the rangy American pretty boy had done that. He had used his boots to spurt to all conceivable escape routes starting the opening bell up to the end of the 10th round.

Anyway, it could be said that, if it were in a bullfight, the moment of truth dawned on Algieri much too soon: after he got hit midway in the opening round, before suffering his first knockdown in the next.

Algieri thereby visibly abandoned all fight plans and shamelessly went on survival mode. Most tragic, of course, was that, in trying to stay in the fight, albeit grotesquely, Algieri also dispensed with what little was left of his honor.

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Ernest Hemingway: “…the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor. In Spain, honor is a very real thing. Called pundonor, it means honor, probity, courage, self-respect and pride in one word. Pride is the strongest characteristic of the race and it is a matter of pundonor not to show cowardice.”

By the way, despite that sudden attack of valor, Algieri failed to land a single punch at the start of the 11th round.

A most startling revelation, however, was the one drawn by HBO’s Mike Kellerman, who said Tim Lane, Algieri’s trainer, said during the ninth round that he had “Algieri in a cage and was about to let him go.”

There would be none of that alleged caged fury from Algieri whatsoever until the end of the tasteless mismatch although it’s easy to suspect the brief 11th-round startler could’ve been caused by that botched plan to unleash the shamed boxer late.

It’s also easy to say here that all the belated claims by Algieri’s over-imaginative handler was part of the fantasy they had built around their gutless, inept boxer.

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Well, there was one writer who called the Algieri stand against Pacquiao the “American boy’s 36 minutes of fame.”

Don’t get fooled, though. Algieri in Macau last Sunday was a complete anomaly.

Maybe it was not in his wildest plan to abandon honor and sell short his macho male countrymen. But didn’t Algieri also allow himself to be fooled by that sly WBO matchmaker of the year who goes by the name of Uncle Bob Arum?