Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri: Twitter Reacts Prior to Epic Bout

Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao's fights always seem to have people buzzing on social media, and his upcoming clash against Chris "King of New York" Algieri Saturday is certainly no exception.

Pacquiao is heavily favored to defeat his 20-0 opponent, but there is a great deal of intrigue surrounding the bout nonetheless. Algieri has defied the odds to get to this point, but Pacquiao's camp is seemingly doing everything it can to negatively impact his confidence ahead of the encounter in Macau, China.

Pac-Man's trainer, Freddie Roach, has been the most vocal opponent of Algieri, as seen in this collection of quotes from Newsday:

Algieri's biggest advantage over Pacquiao is his height at 5'10". The Huntington, New York, native stands nearly four inches taller than his Filipino counterpart, which means the jab figures to be a huge part of his arsenal.

In an attempt to get in Algieri's head, though, Roach insists that Pacquiao deals with tougher jabs on a daily basis, per Ryan Songalia of Ring Magazine:

Although Pacquiao usually prefers to let his fists do the talking in the ring, even he has gotten in on the act to some degree. According to GMA News, the WBO Welterweight champion showed a bit of disrespect for his 30-year-old challenger:

That type of needling might get to a lesser boxer, but Algieri hasn't allowed it to bother him outwardly. He has seemingly grown used to outside observers questioning his credentials, but he earned his way into this situation with a hard-fought victory over Ruslan Provodnikov.

Per ESPN.com's Dan Rafael, Algieri isn't apologizing for ascending to this spot:

Some may continue to question whether Algieri belongs in this fight until he proves that he can hang with Pacquiao, but one person who has already fully endorsed "Real Rocky" is boxing legend "Sugar" Ray Leonard:

Despite that, Algieri still has his naysayers. There is no doubt that Algieri has a marketable look and personality, which is why ESPN.com's Nigel Collins believes he is on the receiving end of so much attention:

Once Algieri steps between the ropes at The Venetian Macao, however, all the focus will be on his boxing ability. While he is undefeated, Algieri has obviously never gone face-to-face with someone as experienced and accomplished as Pacquiao.

Because of that, having a strategy and sticking to it will be key. During the lead up to the fight, the underdog has already made it clear that he doesn't intend to get involved in a slugfest, according to Spin.ph:

In fact, Provodnikov has gone so far as to suggest that Algieri should employ an all-out defensive game plan in order to avoid Pac-Man's legendary power, per Michael Woods of TheSweetScience.com:

With that said, perhaps Pacquiao's power is more legend than reality at this point. Pac-Man does have 38 career knockout wins to his credit, but the majority of his fights have gone to the scorecards as of late.

The judges have decided Pacquiao's past six victories, and he hasn't knocked someone out since flooring Miguel Cotto in 2009, according to ESPN.com's Brian Campbell:

Even so, there is still a strong belief that the favorite will ultimately come out on top. Filipino sports reporter Ronnie Nathanielsz is among those who envision Pac-Man ending his lengthy knockout drought in China:

Algieri has fed off nobody believing in him in the past, and it is quite obvious that he has plenty of motivational tools at his disposal entering Saturday's contest.

It may take one of the biggest upsets in recent memory for people to truly buy in to Algieri, but there is little doubt that the bandwagon will fill up and social media will explode if he manages to knock Pac-Man from his pedestal.

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