When veteran radio commentator Ruel Camba asked me recently inside the booth of DWPR in our city the difference between Chris Algieri and Manny Pacquiao, I told him that even 5’10 in height and 72 inches shoulder and hand reach Algieri, native of Huntington, New York, has 20 bouts on his sleeves where he technically knocked out eight of his opponents, he has a master’s degree in nutrition.
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| World Boxing Organization's Welterweight Champ Manny Pacquiao (L) poses for posterity with the taller and rangy Chris Algieri whose style is to box backtracking. |
“Si Pacquiao aside from his knocked out ratio of 60% of his 63 bouts, he finished only elementary grade until he was accelerated, (through the intervention of the Philippine President?) to college while his fellow examinee, brother and wannabe boxer and wannabe PBA (professional basketball) player flunk,” I explained.
Style makes fight.
I agreed with Siberia, Russia citizen the hard puncher (harder than Pacquiao) Ruslan Provodnikov who bewailed that he should not be fighting the absconding Algieri last June 14, 2014.
Although Provodnikov knocked down twice the New Yorker in the 1st Round, transformed his face from celluloid screen heartthrob Ding- Dong Dantes (Philippine’s version of Ben Alfeck) to flick’s villain the ugly Max Alvarado, the Russian southpaw could hardly hit the back pedaling – Algieri whose footwork’s could be an inferior version of Ali.
“Ali Dimaporo, the Marcos warlord?” Ruel jokingly posed.
“No”, the greatest Muhammad Ali whose famous poetic quipped “Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee”, I told him.
But Algieri could only float but his stings lack venom, thus branding him as less dangerous pug whose punches lack the knock out’s pop.
In that split decision that Provodnikov lost, his face was unscathed.
