The second chapter of Chris Algieri’s career begins on Friday when he faces former junior welterweight titlist Amir Khan.
The 12-round welterweight bout serves as the main event of a Premier Boxing Champions series card at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York (9 p.m. ET, Spike TV). But for Algieri (20-1, 8 KOs), the fight offers an immediate opportunity at a second chance on the highest level.
A native of Huntington, New York, Algieri, was knocked down six times in a one-sided decision loss to Manny Pacquaio last November in Macau. He enters the fight against Khan (30-3, 19 KOs) with a new trainer in John David Jackson and a renewed sense of confidence.
Algieri, 31, recently spoke with ESPN.com about the challenge of facing Khan:
What interested you the most about getting the opportunity to challenge yourself against Khan?
It was a fight that I thought about for a number of years, long before I was ever in the limelight of the sport. I just thought stylistically that it would be great matchup and a good-looking fight. I was down in south Florida training with John David Jackson. I went down to test out how our training would be a couple of times long before this fight was even mentioned and we talked about a couple of possible guys that were out there. Khan was one of the guys, and when my name came up, we were psyched about the opportunity.
How much has Jackson helped you improve as a fighter?
John is incredible. He’s an incredible coach who puts in his homework. He did a lot of studying, even before the first time I came down to see him. He has been trying to show me new things. Constantly, I feel like I’m learning all the time. His style of coaching and my style of being coached coincide very well. He is a very calm and relaxed guy, he speaks rationally and he breaks down why we are doing the things that we need to be doing. For me, to rationalize and to make those adjustments, it helps me learn even faster. We have had great sparring down in south Florida the past couple of weeks and we really pushed the pace. It’s super, super hot down here and we do not have air conditioning in the gym, so it has been hell. It has been as close to hell as you can imagine in the gym, which I think is a good thing. We want to turn up the heat on fight night, so we might as well do it in training camp.
You came up empty at the highest level against Pacquiao. What’s the motivational level to start a new chapter to your career?
Oh man, I’m psyched. I am so psyched and there’s a lot of new things that are happening in my career and in the sport of boxing in general that just coincides with all of this. I have a new coach and I want to show more aspects of who I am and my style. I think a lot of people misjudged me from my last couple of fights, which happened to be the only ones that were nationally televised. But I haven’t showed my full arsenal so it’s an exciting time to go out there and have the opportunity to be on the main stage again and to show what I got.
How difficult is it to prepare to face someone with the hand speed of Khan?
I was talking about this to someone the other day. At this point, we are competing against the .01 percent of the fighters in the world. If I can find guys that fought exactly like Ruslan Provodnikov, Manny Pacquiao and Amir Khan, they wouldn’t be superstars. It’s difficult to find guys at this level who are spot on because they don’t exist. But there are things you can do. For one, we have a lot of sparring partners as a way to keep fresh. So we have a lot of fast guys who we keep rotating to keep everybody quick and sharp and fresh. I think we have done so to get great results. We just try to vary up a lot of different looks, a lot of different styles and a lot of different guys who are all along the same physical standards as Khan and getting guys with the fastest hands as possible.
Considering you are going from one elite opponent to the next, how much of a factor will it be that you enter without a tune-up fight?
I don’t think it’s really going to matter, to tell you the truth. [The tune-ups] were my first 10 fights, even though they were all tough fights. But every fight is tough at this level. Everyone is good and every fight is hard. I’m not looking to pad my record or go out there and just look good. I’m looking to get big fights and win big fights. It’s just the way that my career has gone, fighting a Murderer’s Row of opponents. I’m willing to fight anybody and thank God the opportunities have been coming. We’re just going to keep taking them and preparing the best that we can.
Khan has looked fantastic since becoming a full-fledged welterweight. But what kind of vulnerabilities do you see in him?
I absolutely [see them.] He may be fighting at 147, but he started at 130. He has been moving up and only has a couple of fights at 147. And the sparring partners I faced that were fast, they were all sprinters. And there has been a tendency for Khan to fade in big fights. We need to capitalize on that and push the pace and push the pressure so I can dictate the pace.
Considering the chin issues that have plagued Khan in the past, how much will that be on your mind?
I don’t think that’s something that can ever be behind him. If you’ve been knocked out, you’ve been knocked out. He has been there before a couple of times. I have been down myself. It’s one of those things. Sometimes you can get hit by a brick and not even go anywhere. For some other guys, not so much. I don’t think it will be necessarily behind him, but I think it will still be in the back of his mind.
What does it mean for you to get this chance to headline a PBC card in front of potentially a much bigger audience?
It’s a big deal. I’ve been saying it since earlier in my career that I need to be seen and the more eyes the better. Now we are fighting on this PBC card on Spike TV, which is incredible. It’s another slice of the fan base and market out there. There may be some people who don’t always watch boxing that may tune in that night. Given that opportunity to expand the fan base of the sport that we all love — which I think is the best sport in the world, although I’m a little bias.
From a political standpoint, does this now align you with Al Haymon?
It’s going that way, yes. The PBC series is a great thing that is being put together now and I’d like to be involved as much as possible. It’s a new age and things are changing in the sport. It’s definitely evolving, which I thought has needed to happen for quite some time. There’s other sports coming into the picture that are taking some of the market out there. Boxing needs to adapt. But at the end of the day, boxing is alive and well. There was almost 4.5 million buys in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, so things are looking good.
This is another high-profile fight for you at the Barclays Center. Do you consider this a home game for you being from Long Island?
One-hundred percent, absolutely. The Long Island Railroad is right there at Barclays Center. We had that place packed to the gills for the Ruslan Provodnikov fight. So I expect the same. It’s going to be a pro-New York and a pro-Team Algieri fan base in there.
How do you define what’s at stake for you in this fight?
This fight is for my future. I’m still young in my career. This is just my 22nd fight, so we have much more to do in this sport. My last fight didn’t go the way that I planned or expected, so it’s time to get back on the horse and get closer to where I know I’m headed.
