Roach slams Algieri for weight woes

MACAU – Throughout the promotion of his fight with Manny Pacquiao, Chris Algieri has been getting little love from Freddie Roach.

Roach had dismissed the undefeated Algieri for his lack of punching power, even predicting that the New Yorker won’t last 12 rounds against Pacquiao.

And when Algieri initially failed to meet the 144-pound limit during Saturday morning’s official weigh-in at the Cotai Arena here, Roach once again took a swipe at him.

The 30-year-old fighter tipped the scale at 144.4 pounds on his first attempt. He then had to strip naked, but when he again stepped on the scale, the display read 144.2 – still two-tenths over the contracted catch weight.

Roach didn’t like what he saw.

“The thing is he came in overweight. He must not be too good a dietician because he didn’t eat the right stuff. I mean he must also know that. He’s a college graduate, so they say,” the bespectacled trainer told local scribes after the rules meeting that followed the weigh-in ceremony.

Ironically, Algieri holds a master’s degree in clinical nutrition and markets himself as a health buff. Nevertheless, he managed to shed off the excess poundage in less than an hour, and on his third try at the scale, he weighed 143.6 pounds.

Pacquiao, in contrast, breezed past the process as he registered 143.8 pounds.

Roach, for his part, didn’t let Algieri’s oversight slip.

“Then his coaches say the scale was broken. Well, it wasn’t broken for any other fighter but his,” he said.

Asked if he thinks Algieri is dehydrated as in the case of most fighters who struggle to make weight, Roach he hardly cares.

“I really didn’t notice too much, honestly. I was more concerned with my fighter Pacquiao. He weighed in exactly what we planned on. He had a good meal last night. I’m really not worried about other guys too much,” explained Roach, adding that Algieri’s problems seem to be taking a toll on the American.  

“The WBO took his (Algieri’s) title away, but that happens all the time. It’s part of their rules. I think the pressure is getting to him,” Roach further said.

“He’s never been in this kind of fight. Never, never.”