MANILA, Philippines ? ?Master boxer! Master boxer!?
It?s an unusual battle cry for a professional pugilist at the highest level, more thoughtful than the usual bombastic fare that fills the air in dingy boxing gyms. But for Chris Algieri, it was just what he needed to hear.
Those words came from Yoel Judah, who was supervising some of Algieri?s work alongside head trainer Tim Lane at the Xtreme Couture Gym in Las Vegas.
The 30-year-old boxer had been preparing to meet the more accomplished boxer Emmanuel Taylor, who had just beaten Raymond Serrano and Victor Cayo. Heading into what was then the biggest fight of Algieri?s career, it was exactly what Lane had wanted to hear.
?If Chris is a master boxer, he can?t be beat, he?s too big, he?s too smart, too athletic and too in shape,? Lane tells Rappler. ?That was our motto for the Emmanuel Taylor fight and had he not fought Emmanuel that way maybe the fight wouldn?t have gone our way.?
Since coming into the sport of boxing at the relatively late age of 23, Algieri had struggled to find his identity. Trainer Robert Garcia, who had overseen his sparring sessions with gunslinger Marcos Maidana a few years earlier, had previously noted that Algieri?s dedication would carry him far but said his tendency to brawl limited him somewhat.
Determined to find the style best suited to his long, 5-foot-10 frame, Algieri did his homework in the gym and found the balance between his fighter?s heart and boxing skills. Algieri began using his jab more consistently, firing quick combinations from angles set up by his intelligent footwork before dancing out of harm and resetting to do it all again. It?s that formula that he and his trainers had been seeking to find all along.
That revelation couldn?t have come at a better time for Algieri. Four months after winning a unanimous decision over Taylor, Algieri would face Ruslan Provodnikov. Despite being dropped twice and having his right eye swollen shut within the first 3-minute frame, Algieri was able to regroup, outjab and outpoint the heavily favored Russian a month ago at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
The victory earned Algieri the WBO junior welterweight title. A month later Algieri was announced as the next challenger for WBO welterweight titleholder Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 knockouts) on November 22 in Macau, China, earning Algieri his first million-dollar payday.
It seems as though Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) rose to prominence overnight, but his journey to this point has just gone largely unnoticed.
Kickboxing to boxing
Lane recalls that he first met Algieri about 13 years ago. After years of struggling in pursuit of his own dream to be a kickboxing champion following a move from his native Virginia to Long Island, New York, Lane career was beginning to come together. He was still two years away from winning the USKBA kickboxing title and had a hard time finding sparring partners locally.
