Manny Pacquiao's next fight opponent Chris Algieri sparred with a former world champion in preparation for the upcoming bout. "Pacman's" challenger was also stripped off his WBO light welterweight title.
Manny Pacquiao's next fight against Chris Algieri is scheduled on November 22nd at the Cotai Arena in Macau China, wherein he will be defending his WBO welterweight title. It will also be "Pacman's" second pay-per-view headliner in Asia, just an hour away from his home country.
In a report by Bad Left Hook, the undefeated Algieri was revealed to have been training with two-division world champion Zab Judah. A southpaw fighter as well, the 37-year old Judah was brought in to emulate Pacquiao's tricky boxing style.
Algieri, however, maintains that emulating a fighter like Manny Pacquiao will be a tough task for any of his opponents. But he was still optimistic that his camp had done an excellent job at it.
"There's only one Manny Pacquiao," Algieri said. "There's nobody out there that fights like him. But we can take different aspects of his style and find partners that have done that. We have. My coaches have done a great job doing that."
Manny Pacquiao's next fight also means relinquishing a world title for Chris Algieri. In a separate report, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) has required Algieri to drop his 140-pound title as he challenges "Pacman's" 147-pound title.
Journalist Scott Christ deemed this move by the WBO as "controversial," noting that in situations such as this where a fighter would be challenging an opponent for a title in another weight class, he is given an option to choose which belt he will keep.
"Pacquiao's fights are worth a lot more money than Algieri's, of course, so the feeling might be that since Algieri is likely to lose to Pacquiao -- those are the odds, anyway -- they might as well move the 140-pound title belt off of him, too," Christ wrote. "It's a pretty surprising move overall, and one that kind of screws Algieri, but hopefully at the very least, he'll get a shot to regain that belt if he does lose to Pacquiao and wants to move back down."
