This past Saturday night at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn former Jr. Welterweight belt holder Chris Algieri (21-2, 8KOs) now campaigning as a Welterweight returned with a unanimous decision victory over the tough Erick Bone. It had been 18 months since Algieri’s last win after suffering consecutive defeats. It wasn’t Algieri’s best performance, but he controlled most of the fight with good body work some inside fighting and was the clear cut winner. The victory over Bone puts the Huntington native in a good position for another big fight and there are already rumblings of who may next.
John David Jackson trainer of Chris Algieri gave his thoughts on his fighter’s performance and who may be next to Thaboxingvoice’s Nestor Gibbs in an interview published on TBV’s YouTube channel.
“A lot of good body work that he did and he showed a little more poise, some rounds he let the fight get away from him and he could’ve stopped this kid later on with the body shots that he was throwing.
“But overall he showed good boxing ability and he learned his craft better, so it was a pretty good performance.”
It was a must needed win for Chris Algieri and for what may be next, there are rumors that former two-time Welterweight belt holder Andre Berto could be a possible opponent who is coming off a unanimous decision loss to the now retired Floyd Mayweather in September.
While John David Jackson definitely likes the idea of a potential Chris Algieri vs Andre Berto fight, he feels it’s best for his fighter to take a stay busy fight in between before taking on Andre Berto.
“I would like to see him get one more fight before he fights a Berto,” said Jackson. “He needs these kinda wins to make him a better fighter. I think one more fight before he fights a Berto or anybody else, I would love to see it happen.”
Algieri though has never shied away at an opportunity to fight a big name fighter and if presented with the offer to fight Berto, it’s most likely Chris will take it, especially against a fighter in Berto who is considered to have seen better days and could be on the downside of his career after taking some bad beatings from Victor Ortiz, Robert Guerrero, a stoppage loss to Jesus Soto Karass, and barely winning a round against Mayweather.
“It’s very winnable, Berto is a good fighter but he’s on his way down. He hasn’t learned much recently, he’s hasn’t improved in his fights, so it’s a very good fight for Chris.
“I’d like to see him fight one more fight, but if that was the fight that was on the table and he accepted it, then we got to do what we have to do and prepare for it,” said Jackson.
