Pacquiao returns to ring Nov 22 in Macao

Manny Pacquiao will return to China for his next fight, taking on Chris Algieri in the gambling enclave of Macao.

The scheduled Nov 22 fight for a piece of the welterweight title held by Pacquiao comes a year after the Filipino headlined the first big fight card there with a win over Brandon Rios. Promoter Bob Arum said Pacquiao will likely fight at least once a year in Macao the rest of his career.

"It's almost like fighting at home so it's a major advantage for Manny," Arum said. "Plus if he fights in Macao he's not subject to US income taxes, which are 39.5 percent."

Arum said the fight won't sell as well on pay-per-view in the US as it would if it was in Las Vegas, but that will be offset by lower taxes on Pacquiao's purse and a bigger site fee from the Venetian hotel-casino. He said plans were also in place to sell the fight on TV in China, where Pacquiao is becoming better known.

"We hope to make up for any shortfall with the pay-per-view in China," Arum said. "The market is huge and we're going to sell it for like four dollars."

Pacquiao returns to Macao on a two-fight winning streak that began last September with his victory over Rios. Before that, he had lost a disputed decision to Timothy Bradley and was knocked out by Juan Manuel Marquez.

Algieri, a former kick boxer from New York, is unbeaten in 20 fights with eight knockouts and won a split decision last month over Ruslan Provodnikov in a light welterweight title fight that got him the shot against Pacquiao. He is little known even in boxing circles but Arum said he brings a lot to the promotion.

"He has a lot of things going for him. He's a college graduate, good-looking kid, a good boxer," Arum said. "There's a lot of stuff that makes him very saleable."

"We have a deal. On my end, it wasn't a hard deal at all," Arum said.

"Manny is 100 percent for it. I told him I was coming along with it. He said Algieri seems like a nice young man and he saw his fight with Provodnikov.

"Manny said he thought it would be a good fight and he was OK with fighting Algieri."

Pacquiao has not scored a knockout since stopping Miguel Cotto in November 2009 and was himself knocked out at the end of the sixth round by Marquez in 2012 in his first outing after losing to Bradley the same year.

The 35-year-old, who has won world titles in a record eight weight divisions, cooled retirement talk with his win against Rios and then convincing defeat of Bradley in their April rematch.

Pacquiao's options for opponents have been limited in recent years. Floyd Mayweather Jr refuses to fight him and, until Oscar De La Hoya regained control of Golden Boy Promotions, his company was not allowing any of its fighters - including England's Amir Khan - to fight any of Arum's Top Rank boxers.

The lack of compelling matchups has hurt pay-per-view numbers, too, with Pacquiao and Mayweather not faring as well as expected in selling their most recent fights.

Arum said he believes Algieri will be accepted as a credible opponent despite his relative lack of knockout power and that fans in Macao will embrace Pacquiao again.

(China Daily 07/19/2014 page15)