Chris Algieri makes weight on second try for Manny Pacquiao fight
MACAU -- Chris Algieri needed about 50 minutes to make weight Friday (Saturday in China) for his WBO welterweight title fight with Manny Pacquiao at Cotai Arena.
Algieri, the unbeaten WBO junior welterweight champion, weighed 144.4 when he first stepped on his scale. After stripping naked and removing a large chain, he still weighed 144.2. At that point, he had two hours to make the weight.
Algieri said he successfully made weight Thursday night in the room of a Top Rank employee.
"Maybe something happened when the scale [got] moved here," said Algieri, who has a master's in clinical nutrition.
Pacquiao weighed 143.8 pounds, making the contract limit of 144 easily on the first try.
"I'm disappointed," Pacquiao said after he was asked about Algieri's weight. He also said that Algieri looked dehydrated when they did the staredown.
Algieri ate a breakfast of oatmeal, eggs and coffee before heading to the arena for the weigh-in.
"I'd rather be well fed and feel good than sucked out and drawn," he said.
Algieri trainer Tim Lane said Algieri did not work out to make the weight and simply used the bathroom.
He said he thought there might have been a quarter pound variance on the scale.
"We have two scales upstairs and one of them said he was 143 on the dime and another said he was 143.8," Lane said. "We thought we were where we needed to be. But he had to go to the bathroom and he kind of held onto that. He's fine. ... He just had to go to the bathroom. No exercise. That was it."
When he came back to weigh in, Algieri was 143.6 on the first try. There is no fine for missing on the first attempt.
Justin Fortune, Pacquiao's strength and conditioning coach, laughed at the irony of Algieri, who has a degree in nutrition, being the one who missed weight.
"I don't have a degree but my guy made it with no problem," Fortune said, grinning.
Roach told Yahoo Sports before the weigh-in that Pacquiao weighed 143.1 last night after dinner and said he expected his fighter to come in between 143.4 and 143.8, which is exactly what happened.
That, though, didn't bother Lane.
"Pacquiao's a 126-pounder, dude," Lane said. "Of course. Pacquiao should never be at this weight. The guy walks around at probably 142. He probably ate a hamburger just before the weigh-in just to get the weight up. I'm sure he made it [easily]."
