“Chris Algieri poses many puzzles for me to solve. In terms of his height and reach, only Antonio Margarito surpasses him in the scope of opponents I have faced. Algieri is also the most scientific, fluid and fittest fighter I have ever opposed. All of those factors, plus he is five years younger than me, make him the most dangerous opponent of my career.
“To me, boxing is a lot like Chess. You don’t just move a piece and wait for your opponent to respond, you have to see the board and think 10 to 12 moves ahead and anticipate the variables your opponent may counter with. Algieri does that and he does that very well. If you look at his recent fights — against Mike Arnaoutis, Emanuel Taylor and Ruslan Provodnikov — each victory for him was considered an upset. Yet Algieri never considered himself an underdog, he went into each fight confident and with the right game plan and no matter what happened in the ring, he was disciplined enough to stay with that game plan. And it worked. He outfought them and out-thought them.
“Algieri’s reach and height will require me to work on closing the distance with him in the ring and I will need my speed more than ever to be able to score damaging blows to him while avoiding his own counters. I watched him fight Provodnikov and he fought the perfect fight against him. But I do not intend to fight Algieri’s fight. I intend on fighting my fight and more importantly, making him fight my fight. This will be a battle of wills as much as it will be a battle of blows. There will be a lot more going on in the ring than fans will realize, and it will be fast and it will be exciting.
“There are no shortcuts to victory. My success begins and ends in training camp. You win a fight by winning each round and it is the same in training camp. I give my all each and every day — running in the morning, working out in gym and praying in my home — and focus on being the best I can be physically, mentally and spiritually. That is how I am preparing to fight Chris Algieri. I am sacrificing everything to defeat him and produce not just a convincing victory but my most impressive performance.”
“24/7 Pacquiao/Algieri” premieres Saturday, Nov. 8 at 1:00 a.m. (ET/PT) on HBO immediately following the live World Championship Boxing event from Atlantic City.
Pacquiao vs. Algieri happens Saturday, November 22 live on pay-per-view beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT.
