Is Chris Algieri ready to upset Manny Pacquiao? (Photo: Chris Farina – Top Rank)
By Chris Robinson
The upcoming welterweight title showdown between reigning WBO champion Manny Pacquiao and recently crowned WBO junior welterweight titlist Chris Algieri certainly has drawn a wide range of opinions from people within the sport.
Some feel that Algieri’s awkward, rangy style is enough to throw Pacquiao off his game while others feel the Filipino icon still has enough left in his tank to offer up a dominant performance on Nov. 22 when the two meet in Macau, China.
For former lightweight champion Brandon Rios, who dropped a wide points loss to Pacquiao in November of last year, he feels his former stable mate will actually be able to pull off the upset.
“I go for my boy Algieri,” Rios told HustleBoss.com recently. “That’s my boy. Algieri, he came into our gym and he trained with us.”
Rios trains out of the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Oxnard, Calif. and remember Algieri well from his brief stint at the facility a few years back.
“Algieri is a great boxer,” Rios stated. “He don’t have power, but he’s a great boxer.”
Having shared the ring with Algieri on a few occasions, Rios seemed to sense that his friend was going to pull off an upset when he faced off with then champion Ruslan Provodnikov inside of the Barclays Center this past June.
“I told him he was going to be Provodnikov,” Rios added of Algieri’s split-decision shocker that saw him rise from the canvas twice in the opening frame.
“He was going to outbox him,” Rios added.
When pressed further for any clear advantages that lie with Algieri, Rios tabs the Huntington, New York native’s 72” wingspan, compared to Pacquiao’s 67”, as reason enough for serious belief.
“Algieri’s got the reach,” Rios explained. “He needs to stay on the outside and he’ll do great.”
*** For the full interview with Rios, click below
Chris Robinson can be reached at CRobinson@hustleboss.com