MANILA, Philippines - Chris Algieri is not asking for the moon but only what he thinks is right for him.
The undefeated Italian-Argentinian, word has it, has been offered around $1.5 million to fight Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao in Macau in November.
He hasn’t signed the offer sheet.
Algieri has never been offered that much. When he fought, and stunned, Ruslan Provodnikov just over a month ago, he took home $100,000.
Relatively unknown at that time, he came back from two knockdowns in the opening round to beat the heavily favored Russian on points.
Algieri won the WBO junior welterweight title and the needed attention.
“I’m not unknown anymore,” he said in an article that came out of Newsday yesterday.
Now being pitted against Pacquiao, he thinks he deserves more.
“If we’re going to make this fight happen, I value myself and my health very highly and what I’ve been doing for the past 20 years. I just want what I deserve,” the 5-foot-11 boxer said.
Algieri knows the going rate for boxers put in front of Pacquiao. It was $4 million to $6 million for Brandon Rios, Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Joshua Clottey, wrote Newsday, fought Pacquiao in 2010 for $1.5 million. He took the money and ran.
Algieri said he’s no Clottey.
“With Josh Clottey, he wasn’t an undefeated world champion. I am. I got two things that are very important – that [WBO championship] belt and a zero at the end of my record,” he said.
Top Rank chief Bob Arum and Algieri’s managers are on it. So far, things look positive, and an announcement may come any day.
Algieri can’t let this fight get away. The opportunity may never come again.
The last thing he should do is overprice himself.