Chris Algieri remains confident that he will pull off a shocking upset against Manny Pacquiao in their upcoming showdown on November 22 at the Venetian Resort in Macau, China.
Algieri, the reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) light welterweight champion, said in an interview with BoxingScene that he thinks he can knock Pacquiao out once he hurts him in their upcoming fight.
"If you can hit a man, you can hurt him. If you can hurt him, you can stop him," Algieri said via BoxingScene. "I've had that mentality my entire career. I don't care who I'm fighting. The guy can be 8-12. That guy can knock you out."
Algieri holds a perfect 20-0 record, but has only scored eight knockout victories in his career. He said, though, that his punching power is being overlooked because of his knockout record, but he is ready to prove his doubters wrong in the biggest fight of his career.
"I think all of my sparring partners think that I don't get enough credit and my coaches think that too," Algieri said. "I think it's being realized more and more, by guys who are actually at my fights and see the way that I punch. A guy like Ruslan Provodnikov, who is practically bullet-proof, was unable to walk through my punches. You have to look beyond the numbers in this sport."
The 30-year-old champion will be a heavy underdog against Pacquiao in their fight next month, but with Algieri's confidence, analysts are convinced that the Huntington, New York native could pull off a shocker.
Aside from his ability to score a knockout, Algieri feels that he can also imitate Juan Manuel Marquez's style to put a lot of pressure on Pacquiao's shoulder. Marquez engaged in four tough fights against Pacquiao with the last one ending in a sixth-round knockout victory.
"Marquez made Manny think," Algieri said. "Pacquiao is the king of start and stop, in and out, start and stop. Marquez was able to use broken rhythm to keep that rhythm off. He slowed down certain aspects of it, he picked up certain aspects of it. He was able to disrupt the rhythm of the fight. That's a good strategy to use against anybody."
