By Rick Reeno

Artie Pelullo of Banner Promotions, who co-promotes WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri (20-0, 8KOs), has confirmed to BoxingScene.com that a deal was reached with Bob Arum of Top Rank for his boxer to challenge Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38KOs) for the WBO welterweight crown on November 22nd at the Venetian in Macau, China. HBO Pay-Per-View will carry the fight.

Algieri became a frontrunner for Pacquiao when he scored an unexpected twelve round split decision victory over the heavily favored Ruslan Provodnikov last month at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Against Provodnikov, Algieri went down twice in the first and his right eye was rapidly swelling shut by the midway point, but he slowly found a rhythm and used his boxing ability to keep the hard punching Siberian at bay. Against Pacquiao, Algieri will once again play the role of heavy underdog.

Initially, Algieri had issues with amount of money being offered for the fight (or at least his split of the overall package), reportedly around $1.5 million dollars. Those issues have been worked out, confirms Pelullo, who spent most of his Tuesday finalizing the deal in New York with co-promoter Joe DeGuardia of Star Boxing and Algieri.

As part of his deal with DeGuardia for the Provodnikov bout, Pelullo received three promotional options on Algieri. Pelullo and DeGuardia also co-promote WBO junior middleweight champion Demetrius Andrade.

"Everything is a go. The financial end has been worked out. Chris got more than he wanted. Everything is a go. We made the deal with Arum. We made the deal with Chris. On November 22nd, Chris Algieri is going to challenge Manny Pacquiao for the WBO welterweight championship. All of the paperwork will be signed in the next couple of days, but we agreed on everything with Arum. Everthing is a go," Pelullo told BoxingScene.com. 

"Joe did a great job with this kid and because of our personal relationship, and our relationship with Andrade, [Algieri] got a fight with Ruslan ahead of other people. Chris Algieri is going to do just fine against Manny Pacquiao. He is going to give him the same trouble that he gave to Ruslan Provodnikov. I think the fight is going to be life and death because of the style [of Algieri]."

Arum was delighted that Algieri was able to reach a deal with is promoters.

“They sweetened the deal for him. I offered an amount that I thought was fair and the question was how they were going to divide it up,” Arum said.

A source told BoxingScene that a multi-country press tour is already being worked out for the last week of August, and there will be press conferences in China and the United States.