Manny Pacquiao’s next fight is set, and he’ll be headed to Macau for the second straight year, this time facing Chris Algieri on November 22. His fight against Brandon Rios was held at the same venue over the same weekend last year.
The Pacquiao vs. Algieri fight will be an HBO pay-per-view, according to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports.
Algieri is coming off a breakout win against Ruslan Provodnikov. Still, it’s hard to see him faring very well at all against Pacquiao, who is a far superior and more complete fighter. Additionally, Algieri had a terribly injured eye in that fight, and many believe he didn’t even deserve the decision.
Needless to say, it’s fair to question whether Algieri has been overrated as a result, and in turn, whether he and his management are simply striking while the iron is hot and then cashing out.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, is coming off his rematch victory against Timothy Bradley. He was supposed to be facing Juan Manuel Marquez for a fifth time in their legendary rivalry, as a series of sorts had been set up, with the winners from Pacquiao-Bradley and Marquez’s fight with Mike Alvarado being aligned for the fall.
Since Pacquiao and Marquez won their respective fights though, there hadn’t been much real movement in that direction despite what had been arranged ahead of time. As such, Marquez finds himself on the outside looking in, again, while many fans will wonder why exactly it is that they should pay to watch Pacquiao take on Algieri instead.
Looking at the recently announced fall fight for the sport’s other biggest name, while not everyone is into the idea of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Marcos Maidana rematch, there is plenty of support for that fight following a competitive and intriguing first match. Indeed, it will clearly be the bigger event, as well as the higher caliber bout and the one with more legitimate intrigue, than Pacquiao vs. Algieri.
