Manny Pacquiao Advised By Andre Berto Not To Sleep On ‘Ridiculous Athlete’ Chris Algieri

Manny Pacquiao has been advised by former welterweight champion Andre Berto not to look past undefeated challenger Chris Algieri. The 31-year-old Berto, who is a former world welterweight champion, stated that the unknown and unheralded Algieri has the potential to give Pacquiao some trouble when they meet inside the boxing ring later this month. Pacquiao and Algieri are set to fight on Nov. 23, 2014 at the Cotai Arena, Venetian Resort in Macau.

Berto’s main contention is that Algieri (20-0-0, 8 KOs) has the chance for an upset against Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) because of his conditioning.

“I think a lot of people are sleeping on [Chris] Algieri, I think he’s going to give Pacquiao some problems. He’s always in shape and a ridiculous athlete. And I just saw through my research on him, he’s got potential to give Pacquiao a hard time,” Berto declared in an interview with Fight Hype, a boxing and fight sports news website.

“[But] I don’t know who’s going to win…” Berto continued preferring not to give a specific prediction on who will come out the victor in the championship bout for the World Boxing Organization (WBO) World welterweight title.

Berto (29-3-0, 22 KOs) knows a thing or two about winning world boxing championships as he won the welterweight title way back in 2008. Berto, who was born in Miami, Florida and has roots in Haiti, became the World Boxing Council (WBC) welterweight champion on June 21, 2008 when he won via a seventh round technical knockout over Miguel Angel Rodriguez of Mexico. Berto successfully defended that title five times and held it until April 11, 2011 when he lost to fellow American Victor Ortiz via a 12-round unanimous decision.

That was Berto’s first loss in his boxing career and two more came in 2012 and 2013 when he lost to Robert Guerrero (USA) and Jesus Soto Karass (Mexico). He is on the comeback trail and recently defeated Steve Upsher Chambers (USA) last September. According to another interview with ESNEWS, Berto is looking for big fights in the near future with probable bouts against Manny Pacquiao (Philippines), Marcos Maidana (Argentina) and nemesis Victor Ortiz.