MACAU – Freddie Roach is not giving Chris Algieri any chance by any means to beat Manny Pacquiao on Sunday at the Cotai Arena here.
“Zero,” said Roach.
Period.
The trainer who minces no words was wrapping up a roundtable interview Friday morning when he was asked to rate Algieri’s chances.
Roach motioned with his right hand that Algieri, who’s never been to a fight as big as this one, has zero chance against the quicker and hard-hitting Pacquiao.
Not even the oddsmakers think so because the latest check was that Pacquiao is at -800 (you need $800 to win $100) while Algieri is at +550 ($100 would win $550).
Algieri’s trainers held court in a separate table, also telling reporters that there’s no way Pacquiao can get past the challenge.
“Chris is the young lion and he will prevail,” said Tim Lane who should be a lot better training kickboxers than he is training boxers.
Lane hinted of a knockout – for Algieri.
“I truly believe the fight will not go the distance. I believe that Manny will go to sleep, go back home and retire,” said Lane.
Roach said there’s no way Algieri could knock Pacquiao out if he couldn’t knock out most of his previous opponents of lesser caliber.
Algieri is undefeated in 20 fights but has only eight knockouts. Pacquiao, with 56 wins, five defeats and two draws, has 38 wins by stoppage.
Roach almost laughed when told of Lane’s knockout threat.
“No chance. Chris doesn’t have the power,” he said.
By beating Ruslan Provodnikov last June, Roach said Algieri must have fallen into this false sense that he can beat Pacquiao as well.
Roach said Pacquiao and Provodnikov “are worlds apart.”
“Maybe they think they’re going in there with a guy like Ruslan and that they have a chance. Ruslan is a heavy hitter but he’s not Manny Pacquiao,” said Roach.
Pacquiao was back at the gym Friday afternoon when he was supposed to be in his room.
But Roach said Pacquiao begged him for another day at the gym.
“He begged me. He said ‘let me work out.’ He negotiated and sometimes he’s a good negotiator,” said Roach.
Pacquiao was at the gym at around 2 p.m. but even before he started to break sweat the gym was almost packed and they had to close the doors.
Pacquiao did a few rounds with the mitts and did the normal routine. The session did not last longer than the previous ones.
“He’s too anxious to fight so I wanted to calm him down a bit. He’s too warmed up to be sitting in his room,” said Roach.
It’s the first time that Pacquiao worked out at the gym two days before a fight but Roach took it positively.
“He wants the fight badly,” said Roach, adding that normally, if Pacquiao was at the gym on the eve of the official weigh-in it’s because he was having problems making weight.
Not in this case.
“Maybe Manny wanted to work out so he could have a good meal tonight,” said Roach.
The official weigh-in is scheduled Saturday, unusually too early at 7:30 a.m. and at a catchweight of 144 pounds.