Chris Algieri fights Manny Pacquiao on Saturday. (Getty Images)
Chris Algieri fights Manny Pacquiao on Saturday. (Getty Images)

Chris Algieri is not your garden variety prohibitive underdog.

He’s a reigning world champion. He’s never lost a professional fight. And even though he’s in the midst of his initial pay-per-view run-up, he doesn’t at all seem on the verge of shrinking to the occasion.

In fact, to hear the dual-degree college graduate tell it, this is what precisely he was born for.

“It's been fantastic,” he said. “It's the kind of stuff that you want as a fighter coming up. You want this kind of exposure. A lot of guys say this, but when it comes they really don't want it.

“I'm not that kind of guy. This stuff gets me up. My open workouts are like fight day. I've got a lot of pressure on me and I ride it to the top. I am enjoying my time here and my time under the microscope and I believe that has helped out whole team step up to perform that much better.”

Algieri gets his spotlight chance on Saturday night in China, where he’ll face global phenomenon and seven-division world title claimant Manny Pacquiao atop a four-bout pay-per-view card to be broadcast live by HBO PPV from the Venetian Macao's Cotai Arena. 

The 35-year-old Pacquiao will be making the first defense of his second reign as World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight champion, which began in April when he defeated Timothy Bradley via unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He’s also held world titles at 112, 122, 130, 135, 140 and 154 pounds in a pro career that began in January 1995, a month after he turned 16.

Algieri is the reigning WBO champion at junior welterweight (140 pounds) by virtue of a split-decision victory over Ruslan Provodnikov, whose trainer, Freddie Roach, will be in Pacquiao’s corner on Saturday.

The fight will be contested at a negotiated catch-weight limit of 144 pounds.

Algieri, who turned 30 in March, hasn’t weighed-in as heavy as 144 since his fifth career fight in 2008. He was an even 140 for the upset defeat of Provodnikov in June, when he rose from the floor twice in the first round and fought the majority of the 12-round bout with a grotesquely swollen right eye.

The victory scuttled talk of a possible Pacquiao-Provodnikov match and gave Algieri the opportunity when the Filipino’s four-time foe, Juan Manuel Marquez, didn’t jump at the prospect of a fifth go-round.

And according to his trainer, Tim Lane, it played right into Algieri’s stardom-ready hands.

“Chris has been handling the pressure like there is no pressure,” he said. “There is a lot of relaxation and meditation and ice baths after workouts. This is the Chris Algieri Show. Like I said before, this is what he had visualized for years and now he has the situation the way he has always dreamt about having it. 

“This is a dream come true so there is no pressure. There is great energy and Chris is feeding off all of it and he is stronger than ever.”

The odds-makers, at least to this point, aren’t buying it.

Pacquiao is a sizable favorite according to numbers posted on VegasInsider.com, which would require a $750 outlay on the champion to win $100 if he defends his title. An upset would be far more lucrative and would pay Algieri bettors $525 for a $100 wager.

Roach, who was in Provodnikov’s corner for the June fight, is expecting an early night this time. 

Pacquiao has scored just one stoppage -- a 12th-round TKO over Miguel Cotto, for which he weighed 144 pounds -- since becoming a full-time welterweight in 2009. But he forced a surrender from Oscar De La Hoya after eight rounds and dumped Ricky Hatton in two rounds in the pair of fights immediately preceding the Cotto match, while weighing 142 and 138, respectively.

“I would love to see a knockout,” Roach said. “I think at 147 (Pacquiao) is a little smaller than most of the 147-pounders out there. We have to feed him five times a day for him to make that weight. This fight is at 144 and I think his power will come back. I see a knockout coming for sure.”

Weekend Watch List
HBO PPV -- Saturday, 9 p.m.
Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri -- WBO welterweight title
Vasyl Lomachenko vs. Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo -- WBO featherweight title
Jessie Vargas vs. Antonio DeMarco -- 12 rounds, junior welterweights
Zou Shiming vs. Kwanpichit OnesongchaiGym -- 12 rounds, flyweights