Chris Algieri put himself on the map when he survived a brutal first round knockdown vs. Ruslan Provodnikov in the biggest fight of his career to defeat the "Siberian Rocky" in Brooklyn's Barclays Center, and now may get to step in the ring with Manny Pacquiao.
Pacman vs. Khan would be 50-50 fight?
"We have a Pacquiao offer on the table and we are negotiating that actually as we speak," Algieri's promoter Joe DeGuardia told The New York Daily News on Tuesday. "And I expect that we're going to have a resolution within the next day or two."
The undefeated Algieri (20-0-0, 8 KO) made a name for himself by building a strong fan base in Long Island-he is a Huntington native, then taking advantage of the opportunity to headline a fight in Brooklyn against a supremely entertaining fighter in Provodnikov.
Algieri upsets "Siberian Rocky" in Brooklyn
Still, despite his big win, Algieri is a somewhat surprising choice for Pacquiao. Algieri is the WBO light welterweight champion, so he's small even for Pacquiao who is a small welterweight. He also has a strong following in New York, but remains under the radar for the most part outside of his home base. Of course Pacquiao's the major attraction, but British fighter Amir Khan has expressed interest in facing him and would represent a bigger matchup.
Top Rank CEO Bob Arum said he will look into a Khan matchup but said he's confused by his change of heart. "We, about a month ago, sent out feelers through somebody who's connected with the Khans about whether he'd be interested in a Pacquiao fight. And we heard nothing positive in return," Arum said.
"So for the kid to now say, 'Yeah, I'm ready to fight Pacquiao,' etcetera, etcetera, etcetera - where does this come from?"
Arum also said the hold up was caused by a failure from Khan's team to deliver his contracts to make sure the fight could even take place. "When we reached out to him a month ago, we said, 'We're not interested in the amounts [specified in Khan's contracts], but redact those numbers and send us the contract so we can see if we can even talk to you about a Pacquiao fight.' And we got nothing in return."
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