Freddie Roach believes that Manny Pacquiao should be wary of Chris Algieri's jab in their upcoming world title fight on November 22 at the Venetian Resort in Macau, China.
Roach admitted in an interview that Algieri's best weapon is the way he utilizes his jabs. The Hall of Fame trainer said that it is the best weapon in boxing and Pacquiao should take that away from Algieri in order to win next month.
"He has a great jab," Roach said of Algieri via BoxingScene. "The jab is the best punch in boxing - guys like Virgil Hill and Larry Holmes won world titles with the jab, so it's something we really have to concentrate on. We have to take that jab away from him and we have a game plan on how to do that and we are working on that every day."
Roach added that he is aware of the things that they need to work in order to neutralize Algieri since training camp started. He said that the reason why they decided to get Viktor Postol as sparring partner is because they felt that the unbeaten junior welterweight also has a great jab like Algieri.
"And that's why Postol was brought in, because he has a very good jab like Algieri. Now, he is a little bit taller than Algieri and has a longer reach but it gives a good idea about what to expect in the fight," Roach said.
The Hall of Fame trainer added that Pacquiao's upcoming fight would determine their next move. He said that if the Filipino boxing icon performs well against Algieri, they will strongly consider moving down to the light welterweight division, saying that the former pound-for-pound king might be more effective as a 140-pound fighter.
"When you are fighting a 147-pounder and you only weigh 135 yourself or 140, you are in there against much stronger guys and Manny only has two knockouts as a welterweight and he has a lot of knockouts at 135 and 140 and the thing is this is a catch-weight of 144, and if he feels good at 144 we may go to 140 again," Roach said.
Should Pacquiao go down to the 140-pound division, previous reports indicated that his camp would consider facing Danny Garcia or Ruslan Provodnikov.
