Pacquiao eyes KO win

MACAU – Less than a month shy of his 36th birthday, Manny Pacquiao is fervently trying to keep a distance between him and Father Time.

Whether or not he can do that will be known at noon today when Pacquiao, well-trained and highly motivated, faces American Chris Algieri at the Cotai Arena here.

Pacquiao will put his shining WBO welterweight crown on the line against Algieri, a native New Yorker who’s younger, taller, hungrier and perhaps smarter.

The Filipino superstar, the ex-pound-for-pound king, went back to his old ways in training. He vowed to be his old self inside the ring – faster and stronger than anyone else in the sport.

“Just like what I did in the early days – with the hunger and the aggressiveness when I was young,” said Pacquiao after Saturday’s official weigh-in.

Pacquiao fans in the hundreds dominated the enclosed area at the fight venue for the weigh-in. They chanted his name even as he spoke on the microphone.

Algieri, a first-timer on boxing’s big stage, hardly found support from the crowd. When he arrived here from Los Angeles for fight week he had only a handful of companions.

Pacquiao flew in with around 350 of his family and friends and team members, on board two A320 airbuses provided by AirAsia.

There’s a great disparity that also shows on the odds - Pacquiao being a 7-1 favorite.

It’s also hard to find anyone from among boxing officials and scribes here rooting for Algieri. The more relative question is if Pacquiao could knock him out.

Or when

For five years now, Pacquiao’s followers haven’t seen him score a knockout, leaving some doubting whether he has slowly lost the power behind his punch.

He gets the chance to prove Sunday that he still has it.

Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, has been telling everyone here the past few days that the fight, scheduled for 12 rounds, could be over in one.

“Manny is really ready. I said we’re going to knock him out because I have confidence in my fighter,” he said.

Pacquiao is not the fighter who predicts knockouts even if he has 38 of them in his 56-5-2 record. But Roach said that in their private moments, he feels that Pacquiao is longing for one.

“He needs a big win right now and he knows that to make the world come back on his side. He really, really deep down wants to win by knockout,” he said.

Pacquiao is guaranteed $23 million for this fight alone, and Algieri, undefeated in 20 fights with only eight knockouts, $1.5 million.

It’s the biggest paycheck for the good-looking boxer and former kick-boxing champion, who was paid a measly $100,000 in his fight against Russian beast Ruslan Provodnikov last June.

Algieri won that fight on points despite going down twice in the opening round, and also won the right to fight Pacquiao.

After weighing in, Pacquiao said he loves to fight undefeated boxers. On the microphone he said it’s because “it’s such an honor.”

But off-air, a female commentator from Top Rank said Pacquiao’s response was because “he wants to show (an undefeated boxer) what a loss feels like.”

Algieri countered by saying he loves to fight experienced boxers. He’s been an underdog in all his previous fights, and hasn’t lost any of them.

There’s no question. Algieri thinks he can beat Pacquiao.

“I know I did all the hard work I needed to do. And I have the skills to do it. This is a dream come true,” he said.

Pacquiao said it could be quicker that anyone could hope for.

“Get to your seats early. You don’t want to miss the fireworks. It’s going to be great action,” said Pacquiao, who thinks of Algieri as a new kid on the block.

“It’s a challenge for me because he’s so tall,” said Pacquiao, who at 5’6” is at least three inches shorter that Algieri, 30, who dreams of becoming a doctor someday.

“But the difference between Algieri and myself is this: I’ve been there before. I know how to react when the moment of truth comes. Let’s see how he reacts when he has his meeting with destiny,” said Pacquiao.

“I’m going to cut off all avenues of escape,” he said.

“We’re going to cut the ring and set traps. We’re going to try to make it exciting. We’re not going to make this a boring fight,” said Roach.

They’re on the same page.