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MANNY PACQUIAO, FREDDIE ROACH, AND BOB ARUM DISCUSS CHRIS ALGIERI CLASH: CONFERENCE CALL HIGHLIGHTS

By Ben Thompson | October 23, 2014
MANNY PACQUIAO, FREDDIE ROACH, AND BOB ARUM DISCUSS CHRIS ALGIERI CLASH: CONFERENCE CALL HIGHLIGHTS

Earlier today, WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, along with world-class trainer Freddie Roach and Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, held a conference call to promote the upcoming November 22 showdown with WBO jr. welterweight champion Chris Algieri, which takes place at the Cotai Arena in Macao, China. Check out some of the highlights of what they all had to say!

MANNY PACQUIAO:

I'm excited to fight again with a tall opponent like Algieri...I've been fighting a tall guy like Algieri, so I know what I'm doing and I know what I'm going to do in the ring.

We're not taking it lightly for this fight, and he deserves this fight because what he proved in the Ruslan fight.

We cannot control the fight. The fights are not all the same...but what we're doing right now is to get back the hungerness and the focus and the killer instinct that the people want to see.

I'm still hungry and I'm doing what I did before, what we did in Wild Card training, which was we did less muscle. It's good; it's good for me...more heavy bag and mitts, and, you know, plyometrics.

It's not the first time that it happened to me like that, like the Marquez fight. I experienced it before and I know what I'm going to do and I know what I'm going to do in the fight for this fight. We studied hard and we focused hard in the gym different techniques and different style and different strategy I believe I can use in the fight. So nothing to worry about that. I know they're going to look at that fight, they're going to watch that fight, they're going to review that fight, and I know what I'm doing and what I'm going to do.

I think I have a better way if he throws a lot of jabs. I can move faster than him, so nothing to worry. I'm not worried about that.

FREDDIE ROACH:

Well, we have a great training camp so far. Usually we start with mitt workouts and so forth with Manny. We usually start at 4 rounds. My first day in the gym with Manny this time, we went 12 rounds. Manny wasn't even breathing. We've had a great start; Manny's best start we've ever had. And sparring's been really going well. We have over 34 rounds of sparring in so far and we've got some great sparring partners.

He's a petty good mover. He moves pretty well. He's very defensive, at least against Ruslan when I faced him last time he was. He has a good left hand and he has good jab. I think his jab is his best weapon and something we really have to take care of.

Well, you know, we added some big sparring partners. Mike Jones is really a big, good puncher and so forth, and Manny is doing really well with him. He's hit him with some good shots here. He's hurt him a couple time in training camp already. He's showing good power so far and he's showing the intensity that I want. When he hurts somebody, then he opens up on them and finishes them. I told him if we get rid of a sparring partner, we just get another one. So training camp is going really well. We got some really good sparring partners for this fight.

I would love to see a knockout. The thing is, I think, you know, at 47, maybe he's a little bit smaller than most of the 47-pounders out there. We have to feed him 5 times a day to make that weight. This fight's at 44. I think his punching power will come back and I see a knockout coming for sure.

His conditioning and his training has been really good. Training here in General Santos is really good for him because he's really comfortable. We have a really nice gym here and his family is here and his home is here, so I think he's more at ease with it and he doesn't have to worry about his family so much. And we have great sparring partners. This camp is the best sparring partners we've ever had to get him on top of his game.

[Viktor] Postol has a great jab. He's tall. I mean, he's taller than Algieri. He's rated number one. He's very smart. I see Manny having a little trouble with him. It's more of a thinking man's job there; who's gonna pull the right move off at the right time, so he really makes Manny think and that's something Algieri will do also and that's what we're getting ready for.

Postal is a very good fighter, very difficult fighter. He's taller than Algieri; he has a better left hand than Algieri, but, you know, Algieri is a solid fighter also. Both guys are very good guys and I think we got the best sparring partner we could possibly get for the fight.

Well, when you're fighting a 47-pounder and you're only weighing 135 yourself, weighing 140 yourself, you're in there against bigger, stronger guys. Manny only has 2 knockouts as a welterweight, but the thing is, he has a lot of knockouts at 135 and 140 and the thing is, this fight is at a catchweight of 44, and preferably, him being at 44, we might go to 140 again and I think at 140, Manny will be a better puncher than he will be at 147 because the guys just will be smaller and not as strong.

He has a great jab. I mean, the jab is the best punch in boxing. I mean, guys like Virgil Hill, Larry Holmes won world titles with the jab, so, you know, it's something we really have to concentrate on. We have to really take that jab away from him. We have the game plan on how to do that and the thing is, we're working on it every day. That's why Postol was brought in because he has a very good jab like Algieri and he's a little bit taller than Algieri, so he has a little more of a reach, but it gives us a good idea of what to expect in the fight.

I think Manny is a much more experienced fighter [than Ruslan Provodnikov], much clever fighter, and a lot more combinations, a lot faster; not as big of a one-punch knockout artist, but can hurt you when he wants to.

BOB ARUM:

If somebody goes up to the plate to hit a homerun, he has less chance of hitting a homerun than the guy who comes up to the plate just goes to meet the ball. If the knockout comes, the knockout comes, but, you know, to go out and look for a knockout and to neglect other aspects of the fight, particularly against an intelligent fighter like Algieri, would be folly. Now if he gets a knockout, that's great...but you don't go out there looking for a knockout.

Well, you know, I think we did quite well going back last November. We did 475,000 buys for the Brandon Rios fight. For a fight that took place outside of the country, I thought that was a great number. Now, with Chris Algieri getting the type of publicity that he is getting, which we never had before; for example, I don't remember ever, I mean, I'm sure in the Ali days it was different, but I don't remember recently ever a fight getting an article in The New Yorker magazine the way this one has in this week's New Yorker. And for example, if you ask people who watch Fox Business News, where Algieri has been on numerous occasions, which fighter may do better, Chris Algieri or say Tim Bradley, they would say Chris Algieri, so while it's true that among fight fans Algieri may not be as well known as an established guy say as Tim Bradley, among the general public, more of the public know now Algieri than they do most fighters, and therefore I think we're going to do a number akin to what we did in a Tim Bradley fight, which is anywhere between 750,000 and 900,000 buys.

If Algieri wins the fight, there's a provision in the contract that he must give Manny Pacquiao a rematch, so I think that if he does pull off the upset win, I'm sure Manny would want revenge, so that would be Algieri's next fight. And then, you know, we have to see what develops along the lines. But Algieri is one of the most confident fighters that I've run across. He's convinced everybody that he's talked to because he believes it himself that he is prepared to give the fight of his life against Manny. He's very, very intelligent. He knows what he's doing in the ring. This is going to be a very, very competitive fight.



[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]

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