Boxing News: Manny Pacquiao Floors Chris Algieri Six Times on way to Victory

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Manny Pacquiao hasn’t scored a knockout in what seems like eons. He knows that, everybody who follows boxing knows that.

At several points in his fight with Chris Algieri Sunday morning in Macau, China, it seemed like his knockout drought would end.

Unfortunately for the Filipino mega star, he’ll have to wait until his next outing to try and finally get another KO on his ledger as Algieri was tough enough -- and fleet-footed -- to escape the battle on his feet.

Algieri spent the vast majority of the contest on his bicycle fleeing from Pacquiao’s vaunted power; he backed away at a high velocity and darted from to side-to-side every chance he had. His defense was spot-on for much of the battle, but when he made Manny miss, he rarely made him pay. Unfortunately for Algieri, he doesn’t have the same dynamite in his hands that the defending WBO welterweight champion has because even when he hit Pacquiao clean right on the buzzer, the boxing politician never even blinked.

Related: Pacquiao vs. Algieri Play-by-Play

What made matters worse for Algieri is that he was officially ruled down six times in the skirmish. Algieri was taken off his feet from a flurry in the second, though replays showed that he clearly slipped on water in the corner. In the sixth, Pacquiao hurt him with a left and right, which sent him to the canvas again. Moments later, after a wild flurry, Algieri was climbing up off the ground.

Algieri was badly rocked in the ninth when a sizzling left hand flattened him. The New Yorker barely got up at the count of nine and was in serious trouble, which allowed Pacquiao to swarm him, forcing the Long Island fighter too take a knee. Algieri was again felled in the 10th by a slick three-punch combo.

Algieri needed a miracle to score some sort of dramatic come-from-behind knockout but it never came; he wound up losing one of the most lopsided 12-round unanimous decisions in the history of the sport. Two of the ringside judges had it 119-103 for Pacquiao, who improved to 57-5-2 with 38 KOs. The last judge scored it 120-102.

“I’m satisfied with my performance,” Pacquiao said immediately following his triumph. “I came to win. That’s enough.”

He did more than enough to secure the win and erase any doubt that he may have possibly lost his power.

“We improved our strength,” he said about his training. “I was looking for a knockout. But it’s fast and moving and I didn’t want to get over-confident.”

As for Algieri, who burst onto the scene with his sizzling win over Ruslan Provotnikov earlier this year and gained recognition simply by signing to fight one of the world’s best pound-for-pound fighters, it’s tough to figure where he’ll go next. Algieri fell for the first time pro, but was upbeat in his post-fight interview with HBO.

“Manny is the best in the world at fighting like Manny Pacquiao,” said Algieri, now 20-1 with 8 KOs. “The plan was to get it into the later rounds without incurring too much damage and if we could hurt him, we’d hurt him. I’m not saying we’d knock him out but we were going to hurt him.”

As usual, all sights were immediately set to Pacquiao and his future, and whether he’ll finally lock horns with Floyd Mayweather.

“He’s going to fight me?! Yes! Yes!” Manny joked with Max Kellerman. However, unlike so many times in years past where Pacquiao simply said that everything is up to his promoter (Bob Arum) where he wouldn’t outright call Mayweather out, Pacquiao essentially said the time is now for the fight to happen.

“I’m ready to fight him next year.”