Manny Pacquiao's adviser, Michael Koncz, believes that the Filipino boxing icon will score a knockout win against Chris Algieri in their upcoming showdown on Nov. 22 at Venetian Resort in Macau, China.
Koncz said in an interview with The Manila Times that Pacquiao, who will defend his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title, will score his first knockout win since 2009, when he stopped Miguel Cotto in the 12th round of their showdown.
Koncz also played down speculation that Pacquiao, who has fought at the 147-pound division over the past several years, is having a hard time reaching the 144-pound catchweight.
The long-time legal adviser said that the former pound-for-pound king will easily reach the catchweight, confirming that Pacquiao is actually planning to move down to 140 pounds after the Algieri fight.
"Pacquiao's trainers made a wonderful job so far. I like what I saw," Koncz said. "If you'll ask the weight, there's no any issue about it. In fact, we're planning to go down to 140 lbs for his next bout."
Assistant trainer Buboy Fernandez echoed Koncz's statement, and also added that Pacquiao will be in his best possible shape on fight night and will likely score a dominating victory against his unbeaten challenger.
"He is ready to go as what I said before and there's no problem with his weight. He'll make it at the catch weight," Fernandez said. "Manny is at 142 to 144 lbs now and he's in best fighting shape. His blinding speed and power have improved a lot, so there'll be no problem."
On the other hand, Algieri, who holds a perfect 20-0 record with eight knockouts, is also confident that he will manage to silence his critics, who are already counting him out since the fight with Pacquiao was announced.
Algieri, who earned the right to face Pacquiao after scoring a split decision win against Ruslan Provodnikov, said that he is ready to score a huge upset against the reigning WBO welterweight champion.
"I worked hard for over 10 weeks in the most strenuous and productive training camp of my career," Algieri told BoxingScene. "I had a lot of different sparring partners, including Zab Judah, giving me different looks to prepare me for anything Pacquiao decides to throw at me. I am 110% prepared for our fight."
