MANILA, Philippines - Freddie Roach can say all he wants to say but he will never get under Chris Algieri’s skin.
That’s what Algieri, soon slated to fight Manny Pacquiao in Macau, said.
“I’m not that guy that mind games will work on,” the undefeated boxer and certified clinical nutritionist told The Sweet Science.
Roach called Algieri a “tough kid” but the 54-year-old trainer quickly added that “tough kids don’t win big fights.”
Roach loves to play with words. He normally takes the cudgels and does the talking for the Filipino superstar coming to a fight.
For the 2008 “Dream Match” with Oscar dela Hoya, Roach set the tone for the fight by saying that boxing’s Golden Boy is done and “can’t pull the trigger.”
Roach has almost guaranteed a knockout win by Pacquiao over Algieri at The Venetian Hotel on Nov. 23.
“He’s a tough kid and he’s strong. He doesn’t have the speed and the skills Manny has. But he has the power,” Roach told The STAR in an interview.
He said Algieri belongs to “the new generation” of opponents for Pacquiao, who is one month shy of his 36th birthday, and had seen most of his opponents retire.
That includes Dela Hoya.
Algieri is not actually taking things sitting down, because in one previous interview he told the American press that Roach is only making noise because “he’s nervous.”
Algieri carries a master’s from the New York Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s from Stony Brook University.
On Roach’s “tough kid” statement, Algieri told The Sweet Science, “I don’t think anything needs to be said about that comment.”
“Last I checked. I am currently an undefeated world champion in boxing, not track,” said Algieri.
He plays mind games only when he wants to.