MANILA – Mexican fighter Juan Manuel Marquez believes Filipino world champion Manny Pacquiao can win via knockout versus undefeated Chris Algieri despite the American boxer’s height and reach advantage.
”I believe that Paquiao can win by knockout,” Marquez said in a boxingscene.com report.
Marquez, who fought Pacquiao four times and won the fourth fight via devastating sixth round knockout on December 8 two years ago, also said Algieri has small chance to win against the Filipino boxing superstar.
”He barely has a chance to win. Algieri is strong and he’s durable. He has also boxing ability, as he shown against Ruslan Provinkiov but he doesn’t have the style to beat Paquiao, who has great speed and power,” Marquez said.
Pacquiao, a House representative of the lone district of Saranggani province, and Algieri will face each other in November 22 this year at the Cotai Arena at the Venetian in Macau, China.
Algieri, from the Long Island, New York, town of Huntington, was totally unknown but earned world attention after his split decision victory over Provodnikov, a former sparring partner and friend of Pacquiao, last June 16.
It was Algieri’s 20th win in his unblemished professional career that also earned him to challenge Pacquiao, the WBO welterweight champion.
Since absorbing his worst defeat at the hands of Marquez, Pacquiao has bounced back to win two straight fights against Brandon Rios and erstwhile undefeated Timothy Bradley to regain the WBO welterweight belt.
Pacquiao, 35, holds 56-5-2 record with 38 win via stoppages.