Former Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao foe, Chris Algieri, who fought him back in 2014 in Macau, is also one of the greatest admirers of the Filipino ring legend.
Having shared the ring with multi-weight champion and losing a wide decision, Algieri learned first hand what makes him so special and is still amazed to this day how he can keep fighting at the highest level in boxing at the age of 41.
“I picked Manny to win that fight,” Algieri told Fight Hub TV on his pre-fight prediction of Pacquiao vs. Thurman. “I just think in his last couple fights he’s looked great and like I said Thurman his inactivity bothered him and hurt him in that fight.”
“Manny he’s a freak. You know he is just such a special guy. For him to be able to topple undefeated welterweights at this point of his career at 41 years old, it’s amazing,” said Algieri.
When reporter Marcos Villegas of Fight Hub TV asked Algieri if he saw the first round and wondered how Pacquiao was still like this, the former WBO light welterweight champion shook his head and wasn’t surprised in the aging legends performance.
“Manny’s got power and he’s surprising,” said Algieri. “He is very, very surprising and he’s a dangerous guy, and that stuff doesn’t go away. I was more surprised with his output, but he showed that in the Broner fight too. He still has that ability to keep up and to keep the pace, but not like he was 10 years ago or 5 years ago. I think the Manny from 5 years ago knocks Thurman out. I think he would have sustained the damage and got him out of there. He has to fight a little more in spurts, but man he has a lot of spurts still.
Algieri was also impressed with Pacquiao’s ability to take the heavy handed Thurman’s best punches, but doesn’t want to see Pacquiao take that type of punishment again at his age against the other top welterweights.
“Thurman is a big puncher too,” said Algieri. “He took the punches well and walked through most of them, smiled at a lot of them. That was just an impressive performance from beginning to end. I don’t want to see Manny in too many more fights like that to tell you the truth. I don’t want to see him in with the Spence’s or Crawford’s. It’s definitely the twilight of his career, give him the right fights.
Algieri has always had much respect and appreciation for Pacquiao and would like for the 41-year-old Senator to continue fighting a few more times but doesn’t want him in there with bigger and younger fighters at his age.
A fight Algieri would be interested in seeing is a showdown between Pacquiao and Mikey Garcia, many fans as well believe this would be a great fight for the legendary 8-division world champion because it would be an action-packed fight between fighters of similar size.
