Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri: Projected Winner and Prize Money Purse

Manny Pacquiao's career has been on the ropes as he ages, but at 35 years old, "Pac-Man" still holds the WBO welterweight title, having regained the belt in his last bout with Timothy Bradley.  However, in WBO light welterweight champ Chris Algieri, Pacquiao will face his toughest test since his devastating knockout at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez 23 months ago.

Algieri possesses the reach and mobility to give Pacquiao plenty of issues, especially given the latter's inability to finish off opponents in the later rounds.  Though Pac-Man's name brand has made him a massive favorite in this fight, per Odds Shark, it has become increasingly clear in the lead-up to the fight that the outcome should be much closer to a 50-50 proposition.

Breaking down each boxer, let's take a look at how they match up, while also relaying full fight and payout information.

Date: Saturday, Nov. 22

Time: 9 p.m. ET

Location: Macau, China

Prize Money: ~$25 million for Pacquiao, $1.5 million for Algieri, per The Manila Times

Fight Prediction

Algieri's kickboxing background makes him a unique opponent for the undersized Pacquiao.  With a 72-inch reach, the 30-year-old possesses a difficult combination of speed and length.  Despite being a prolific puncher—Algieri outhit his previous opponent by 217 punches, per ESPN.com's Dan Rafael—he does not take many hits because of his mobility.

Therefore, Algieri's rare physical traits provide a worthy kryptonite for Pacquiao's sterling punching and footwork technique.  The New York native seems to realize that, if harnessed correctly, this advantage could provide him the versatility needed to keep his opponent off balance:

Thus, Pacquiao's recent willingness to take boxers the distance might not suffice on Saturday night.  Pac-Man has not recorded a knockout since his bout against Miguel Cotto in 2009, a drought that is now up to eight fights.  

As Rafael relays, Pacquiao's trainer Freddie Roach believes that the size of his recent opponents has been the primary factor in the lack of knockouts:

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Trainer Freddie Roach said the lack of recent knockouts is simply because Pacquiao, whose first world title came at flyweight, is a small man who has been fighting bigger men in recent years and therefore has not been scoring knockouts.

"He has only knocked out two welterweights [Cotto and a weight-drained De La Hoya] since we've moved up in weight for the big fights," Roach said. "All those other big knockouts were in smaller divisions."

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That's an important consideration, as the weight will be an underrated X-factor in this fight.  Because the two have fought in different weight classes, this bout will be contested at the catchweight of 144 pounds, three short of the welterweight limit.  

According to Rafael in the aforementioned article, Pacquiao is considering a return to the junior welterweight class, especially if a potential titanic clash with Floyd Mayweather is not in the offing.

Chris Hyde/Getty Images

It's entirely unclear how this will affect the outcome, since both boxers need to adjust.  It's possible that the added weight could slow some of Algieri's speed, but the already diminishing Pacquiao is likely not helped by dropping more weight.  Regardless, Roach believes that a knockout would be a refreshing way to reassert Pacquiao's dominance:

Algieri is certainly vulnerable to the early knockout, as he was floored twice in his last fight against Ruslan Provodnikov before recovering to control the latter rounds.  As this fight moves forward, one would expect the scales to tilt slowly toward Algieri.  

Thus, despite the vast disparities in name recognition, this looks like a poor matchup for Pacquiao.  The Filipino superstar is terrific at using his deception to catch opponents off guard, something that Algieri is vulnerable to.  However, if the American can move well laterally in the early rounds and play enough defense to avoid the devastating blow, look for him to wear down his smaller opponent.

A Pacquiao loss would not necessarily signal the end of his career, as the Marquez defeat illustrated.  But it would almost certainly extinguish whatever remaining hopes of a Mayweather fight existed, while also signaling Algieri's rise as a potential welterweight threat if he continues to add weight.

Predicted Winner:  Algieri by unanimous decision