Pacquiao vs Algieri: Uneventful final presser for Saturday PPV fight
Fight time is near for Manny Pacquiao and Chris Algieri, but there are no big theatrical displays coming from either camp.
Manny Pacquiao and Chris Algieri haven’t had any trash to talk, and their teams aren’t trying to bait one another. Maybe that’s all for the best. This Saturday’s HBO pay-per-view main event from Macau will feature the established superstar Pacquiao defending his WBO welterweight title against unbeaten but little-known Algieri, and promoters and the fighters are hoping the fight will sell itself.
Top Rank’s Bob Arum thanked both sides for their participation in the fight’s promotion, even calling Algieri (20-0, 8 KO), whom he does not promote, “a hell of a guy.” The sides have been friendly, which will go away to some degree on Saturday, of course. It is a fight, after all.
Algieri, 30, continued to say that his training camp has been excellent, and that he’s ready to win the fight, as he has done every time out thus far in his pro career. The former kickboxing champion scored two career-best wins this year over Emmanuel Taylor and Ruslan Provodnikov, and now looks to make an argument for himself as the Fighter of the Year.
Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KO) was his usual soft-spoken self, thanking sponsors, promoters, his team, his trainer, his opponent, that team, and his sparring partners, this time Viktor Postol, Mike Jones, and Jose Ramirez. The 35-year-old Pacquiao is the favorite for the fight, and expects to come out victorious once again.
Also featured on the card will be Zou Shiming (5-0, 1 KO) vs Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym (27-0-2, 12 KO); Vasyl Lomachenko (2-1, 1 KO) vs Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (52-1, 33 KO) for Lomachenko’s WBO featherweight title; and Jessie Vargas (25-0, 9 KO) vs Antonioi DeMarco (31-3-1, 23 KO) in a 12-round junior welterweight bout.