Manny Pacquiao was going to fight a terrifying KO artist, until an American star ruined his plans

Manny Pacquiao was going to fight Ruslan Provodnikov, says Chris Algieri

Chris Algieri claimed there were plans for Manny Pacquiao to fight Ruslan Provodnikov.

However, he explained that after his thrilling victory over the knockout artist in 2014, those plans were destroyed, giving him the opportunity to face ‘PacMan’ instead.

In an interview with talkSPORT from March, he said: “Bob Arum [the promoter, for Top Rank] doesn’t play checkers, he plays chess.

“He always thinks in advance. His idea was that Ruslan Provodnikov was going to decimate me, in Brooklyn, in front of my hometown fans, and then he was going to get the Pacquiao fight.

“Before I even got up there [for my post-fight press conference], Bob says, ‘I’d like to see that Algieri kid fight Manny Pacquiao’. That lights the picture ablaze. The very first question I get is, ‘How’s the eye?’

“After the eye situation, it’s, ‘How do you feel about fighting Manny Pacquiao’?, and I said, ‘Yeah, of course’. That was pretty much how the fight got sold.”

‘Manny Pacquiao has bricks for hands’, according to former opponent

When Pacquiao and Algieri fought, ‘The Fighting Collegian’ felt the full force of his rival’s power.

In a testament to his fighting spirit, Algieri survived six knockdowns to hear the final bell.

And he’s not the only person who’s gone the distance, absorbing the heavy hitter’s power.

Interestingly, one legend revealed just how hard Pacquiao punches.