Beaming with confidence in a red college football jersey, aviator shades and jogging pants, the 30-year-old Algieri tipped the scales at 143.6 pounds, much to the delight of a small delegation which cheered for him all the way from his hometown in New York.
His opponent, Pacquiao, on the other hand, looked fresh and vibrant as he stepped on the scales, which read 143.8 pounds.
"I'm excited to share my speed and bring back the early days of my boxing career," said Pacquiao amid the thunderous chants of over a hundred flag-waving Filipino and American fans who trooped to the venue to see their ring hero for one last time before he embarks on one of the biggest battles of his professional boxing career.
"I still have the same hunger which I used to have when I was young."
But making the weight didn't come easy for Algieri.
Sources from the Algieri camp bared that he was over the weight limit by four pounds on the eve of the official weigh-in.
With that, he was instructed by his trainer, Tim Lane, to sleep early and have an early breakfast before breaking a sweat moments before he steps on the scales.
On his first try, Algieri weighed 144.2 pounds, prompting him to remove his trunks and give it another try.
Still, it yielded the same result.
WBO president Francisco 'Paco' Valcarcel, instead, gave him a grace period of two hours before returning to the weighing scale.
Algieri stepped out of the arena, put on his sauna suit, did stationary jogging for at least 30 minutes and reportedly took a quick pee before formally tipping the scales at 143.6.
"I'd rather be well-fed than show up dry and sucked up," said Algieri, a nutritionist by profession who claimed that he brought the same weighing scale up to his room and had easily beaten the weight limit.
"There's no reason for us not to make the weight. We tried it a hundred times with the same scale."
Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, earlier bared that Algieri is struggling to make the weight.
In fact, with merely three days before the fight, he still looked hefty, giving the impression that the good-looking American will be slow and sluggish come fight day as he scampered to beat the limit.
And he did.
Roach was right, after all. — JST/JDS, GMA News
source: gmanetwork.com
