Saturday night at the Venetian Macau in Macau, China, Manny Pacquiao blindsided Chris Algieri, knocking him down six times en route to a lopsided decision?
Saturday night at the Venetian Macau?s Cotai Arena in Macau, China, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, 38 KOs), from General Santos City, Philippines, blindsided Chris Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs), from Huntington, New York, knocking him down six times en route to a lopsided decision. Final scores were 119-103 twice and 120-102.
Fighting out of the red corner in light blue trunks, the reigning and defending champion did what he needed to do. Pacquiao pressed the action. He pressed the challenger. He imposed his will on Algieri. His fists touched Algieri?s face and fleeing torso. It was more fair fight than fun fight, less bull and matador than lion and gazelle.
Algieri wore running shoes, but if he had wings on his feet it wouldn?t have mattered. Pacquiao was too fast. He was too strong, too resolute, too smart, too seasoned to fall for any Long Islander?s tricks.
Algieri fought the same fight he fought when he won the light welterweight title from Provodnikov. But Pacquiao is nothing like Provodnikov. The Russian Rocky is tough. Manny is suave in the ring.
Algieri had a game plan. Keep moving. Fight from the outside. Stay away from the trenches. Take the older Pacquiao into the late rounds before knocking him out. It?s not a bad plan, just a bad plan for Algieri. He stung Manny a few times during the fight. But Pacquiao was too busy landing to notice.
The final CompuBox numbers say a lot. Pacquiao landed 229 of 669 punches thrown (34%) to Algieri?s 108 of 469 (23%). But the power punch numbers tell the whole story. Manny landed 187 of 410 power shots (46%) to Algieri?s 80 of 212 (38%).
Pacquiao adds another notch on his holster. There?s no reason he should stop fighting. Algieri by contrast has peaked. He might want to seriously think about medical school. Goodbye Macau. Hello Huntington. It?s been one helluva ride.
After the fight, Pacquiao was chill as ever.
?Tonight, I did my best,? he said with a laugh. ?I?m satisfied with my performance. I did my best. I think that?s enough. I?m very comfortable to win the fight and I?m in shape. I?m looking for a knockout, but it?s fast, it?s moving, so it?s hard to get careless and overconfident.?
Whatever the opposite of chill is, that was Chris Algieri.
?The plan was to fight four first rounds,? he said, ?because I knew he was going to come on strong. I had the feeling he was going to try to blast me out of there because I wasn?t used to the big stage. But Manny is the best in the world at fighting like Manny Pacquiao. That?s really what it is. His stop and start is great. He?s got so much experience. The plan was to get him into the later rounds there without incurring too much damage and setting the pace and landing shots that would hurt him. We weren?t specifically looking for a knockout. We were looking to put some damage on the guy. I think I caught him with a few shots that made him think. His corner was imploring him to really turn it on. And I don?t care what anyone says?Manny is not letting guys slide. He?s in there throwing bombs and trying to get you out of there every single round. It?s not so much the punching power, to tell you the truth. It?s how he mixes the punches up. Manny has a very distinct and unique style. He has perfected what works specifically for his body type and style being Manny Pacquiao, and Manny?s one hell of a fighter.?
I couldn?t have said it better myself.
