Former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri (21-3. 8 KOs) will be looking to jumpstart his sagging career on his next fight by moving back down to the 140 pound division when he returns to the ring in April. Algieri, 32, moved up to the welterweight division in 2014 in facing Manny Pacquiao, and he’s now lost three out of his four fights since moving up in weight.
Algieri’s latest defeat came at the hands of Errol Spence in getting stopped in round 5 on April 16 last year. Algieri was knocked down three times in the fight in getting dropped once in round 4 and two more times in round 5 before the fight was stopped.
Algieri said this to Fighthype.com about his decision to move back down to 140:
“I’m hoping for April,” said Algieri. “I’ve actually been sparring out here as well. I’m actually going to go back down to 140. I’ve been getting some great work in,” said Algieri.
It’s going to be tough for Algieri to resurrect his boxing career in the light welterweight division. There are a lot of talented fighters at 140, and many of them have more punching power than Algieri does. Algieri might need to consider retiring from the sport, as he had his 15 minutes of fame in beating Ruslan Provodnikov by a 12 round split decision on June 14, 2014 to capture his World Boxing Organization World super lightweight title. That was a very lucky win for Algieri, because many boxing fans felt that he lost that fight.
The results of that match-up led to Algieri getting a big money fight against Manny Pacquiao on November 23, 2014. Algieri was easily beaten by Pacquiao by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision. Pacquiao dropped Algieri six times in the fight. Besides that loss, Algieri was beaten by Amir Khan by a 12 round unanimous decision on May 29, 2015. That was a fairly close fight, as Algieri bulked up for the match and put a lot of pressure on Khan. However, Algieri looked bad in losing to Spence in his last fight. He also didn’t look great in beating Erick Bone by a 10 round unanimous decision on December 5, 2015.