By Rick Reeno
WBO junior welterweight champion Chris Algieri is widely regarded as a boxer who in most cases secures his victory with a decision. Only eight of his twenty wins have come by knockout.
He admits that most opponents, and most critics, place their focus on his low percentage of victories inside the limit. That was certainly the case when he stepped in the ring with Ruslan Provodnikov in June. Most expected Provondikov, one of the most dangerous punchers in boxing, to dismantle Algieri. And that appeared to be the script in first round, when Algieri was badly hurt and went down twice. But then Algieri regrouped and outboxed Provodnikov for an upset twelve round decision.
"All the time [people focus on my percentage of knockouts], but anyone who's actually seen me fight - knows that I'm not a light puncher. I'm not one of those guys who are flicking and just trying to touch you. I was cracking Ruslan and backing him up and snapping his head up in the air. Feather-fisted guys don't do that. When I hit you, they are effective. That's what the sport is about...control and being an effective puncher. And I think I executed both of those two factors in the Ruslan fight," Algieri told BoxingScene.com.
"If I didn't have the power to keep guys at bay...Ruslan would have run me over. Ruslan runs over guys. And I didn't run from him, I don't care what Freddie [Roach] says. I stood there and punched with the man. I outpunched him. I threw more punches than him."
On November 22nd in Macau, Algieri will face a much stiffer test when he challenges eight division champion Manny Pacquiao for the WBO's welterweight title. Power or no power, Algieri fully realizes that he can't afford to make any mistakes against Pacquiao.
"With the Ruslan fight, I got a little overzealous in the first round and I made a mistake and got caught with a shot. Other than that, I stuck to the game plan the entire time. If you remove the first round, it wasn't even a close fight. The scoring was close because of the first round, with the mistake that I made. With this fight, this is a no mistake situation," Algieri said.