Against a taller fighter with solid boxing skills, Pacquiao showed that he still had the explosiveness, punching power and speed that once made him the top pound-for-pound boxer in the world.
The "Pacman" was never seriously challenged by Algieri, shrugging off the American's sporadic punches and putting together multi-punch combinations that caused Algieri's left eye to swell and wobbled his knees.
Pacquiao clearly wanted to end a knockout drought that stretches all the way back to 2009, but Algieri managed to stay standing until the final bell. The Filipino boxer nevertheless won in overwhelming fashion, with judges scoring the bout 119-103, 119-103, and 120-102.
"Tonight, I did my best," a beaming Pacquiao said after the fight. "I am satisfied with my performance tonight. I came to fight, I did my best, and that was enough."
Pacquiao hiked his professional record to 57 wins with five losses and two draws, and has now won three consecutive fights in convincing fashion since losing back-to-back bouts to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez in 2012.
Algieri, for his part, lost for the first time in 21 professional fights.
Six knockdowns
Pacquiao floored Algieri for the first time in the second round, although it was a contentious call as Algieri claimed he slipped.
Algieri repeatedly tried to dodge and duck Pacquiao's punches in the first four rounds, but the Filipino icon still found his mark.
"I knew he was gonna come on strong," Algieri said after the fight. "But Manny is the best in the world at fighting like Manny Pacquiao. That's really what it is."
Pacquiao wobbled Algieri in the sixth round with a huge left hand, and a flurry of punches put the American on the canvas again. Algieri beat the count but went down for the second time in the sixth round, although he once more argued that it was a slip.
Pacquiao continued to dominate the fight in the middle rounds, landing his left hand with regularity and connecting on combinations.
Algieri was more active in the ninth round, but paid for it when Pacquiao connected on a vicious left cross that sent the American tumbling to the mat once more. Algieri again beat the count, but was clearly on wobbly legs and had to hold on to Pacquiao while the Filipino was going for the kill.
Because of that, the referee called another knockdown on Algieri, and Pacquiao visibly tried to end the fight as he swarmed Algieri with punches from all angles, but the American managed to survive.
Algieri went down for the sixth time in the 10th round, but danced and dodged away from danger the rest of the way and managed to survive until the final bell.
"I was looking for a knockout, but he's fast," Pacquiao said. "He was moving, and it's hard to get careless and overconfident."
One legitimate knockdown
Algieri, however, claimed that the only "legitimate knockdown" was the one that occurred in the ninth round, when Pacquiao's left hook stunned him.
"I thought that it was my best round of the fight at that point," he said, adding that he wanted to go for a left hook of his own only to be shocked by Pacquiao's faster punch.
"That was the only shot that hurt me, but I had my legs pretty good when I got up," Algieri claimed.
Algieri's height and reach advantage, which was seen to be his biggest physical advantages entering the fight, proved to be of little use against Pacquiao who was able to solve the problem by the second round.
But Algieri said he still stuck to his game plan, which was to make it to the second half of the fight without incurring too much damage.
"We were looking to set up the pace (in the later rounds) and land shots that would hurt him… We were looking to put some damage on the guy," said Algieri.
But by the eighth round, Pacquiao was in complete control of the encounter and was simply shrugging off Algieri's punches.
Algieri said Pacquiao's fighting style was simply unique.
"He's perfected fighting like Manny Pacquiao. It's not so much the punching power, but its how he mixes the punches together. He's the best in the world at fighting like Manny Pacquiao, and it's a very, very unique style," he said.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
