Pacquiao wish: Mayweather after Algieri

Representative Manny Pacquiao AFP FILE PHOTO

HONG KONG—Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao said Monday he’s hoping to finally step in the ring with archrival Floyd Mayweather Jr. next year even as he denied he was taking his upcoming opponent Chris Algieri lightly.

Pacquiao, mobbed by his supporters during a promotional trip to Hong Kong, said: “I’m crossing my fingers” that the hotly anticipated Mayweather fight would happen in 2015.

“But right now my mind is already set to focus on my next fight with Algieri. I think the time to talk about that issue is after the fight,” he told AFP in an interview.

The eyes of the boxing world have long been on a showdown between the unbeaten American and eight-division world champion Pacquiao (56-5-2), two of the greatest boxers of their generation.

The two regularly exchange taunts with “Money” Mayweather recently posting pictures of Pacquiao’s losses, and the Filipino last month telling his rival to stop “blabbing” and fight him.

Pacquiao, 35, said he had a “couple of years” left before retiring, which seemingly gives him ample time to secure the money-spinning fight, if the two sides’ promoters can settle their differences.

“I’m not thinking yet about retirement. I will continue my boxing career, the journey will continue in my boxing career and we’ll see what happens,” he said.

But he said his immediate focus was on his Nov. 23 World Boxing Organization welterweight title defense in Macau against former kickboxer Algieri.

Pacquiao previously dismissed the American as only an “okay” fighter, and this month he took a break from training to make his professional basketball debut in the Philippines’ domestic league.

But he denied underestimating Algieri (20-0) and said he had been training to face a taller fighter.

Algieri is about nine centimetres (3.5 inches) taller than the 5-foot-7 (1.69-meter) Pacquiao.

“No, absolutely I’m not taking this fight lightly because I know his hunger and he’s young and he wants to win the fight, but I will not let that happen,” Pacquiao said.

“I’m not thinking about the knockout because it will make me confident and careless,” he added. “If the knockout comes it will come but my focus is to make sure that my condition is 100 percent and the killer instinct is there, the aggressiveness is there, so that’s my focus in training.”