Pacquiao Vs. Algieri: What Time Does The Fight Actually Start? Who Are The Judges And Referee?

For the second time in his last three fights, Manny Pacquiao will fight in Macau, China, for a WBO welterweight crown. Despite the 13-hour time difference between the Southeastern China city and the Eastern Time zone, Pacquiao’s bout against challenger Chris Algieri will still serve a primetime United States audience.

There are many reasons why Pacquiao has chosen to fight outside the U.S., with the main one being an aversion to high tax rates. Pacquiao is expected take home a purse exceeding $20 million thanks to the Venetian Macau putting up a major fee to host the fight, one that evidently couldn’t be matched by a Las Vegas casino, where Pacquiao fought 10 out of 12 times from 2007 to 2012.

Even with such an exorbitant fee and possibly 200 million to 300 million Chinese watching for free, the fight will actually be held in the early afternoon local Macau time. Boxing and Pacquiao fans in the U.S. will get to tune in to HBO Pay-Per-View’s live broadcast at the typical start time of 9 pm ET. HBO did the same for Pacquiao’s first Macau fight against Brandon Rios back in Nov. 2013.

However, Pacquiao and Algieri likely won’t step into the ring until about 10:30 or 11 pm ET at the earliest, with an undercard featuring WBO featherweight champ Vasyl Lomachenko against No. 1 ranked Chonlatarn Piriapinyo, a flyweight bout between Zou Shiming and Kwanpichit Onesongchaigym, and a light welterweight title clash between Jessie Vargas and Antonio DeMarco.

How long each of those scheduled 12-round fights go will obviously determine the ultimate time fans see Pacquiao and Algieri meet.

After the weigh in, the officials for the fight were also named, so let’s take a closer look at the referee and the judges who could decide the outcome. It’s important to note that two of three judges, and the referee have worked a Pacquiao bout before, but never an Algieri fight.

Referee

Genaro “Gino” Rodriguez

Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Rodriguez has been a boxing referee for more than 20 years, according to fight records from BoxRec.com. There’s been little controversy surrounding Rodriguez’s work, though back in 2011 Australian fighter David Haye and his camp expressed some concern before his bout with Vladimir Klitschko. Evidently Hayes had an issue, however minor, with Rodriguez working three of Klitschko’s previous fights. Rodriguez did work Pacquiao’s fight against Rios in 2011, and the Filipino star handily beat Rios for a unanimous decision after 12 rounds.

Judges

Michael Pernick

Another veteran with more than 20 years of experience, Pernick has previously judged three of Pacquiao’s fights, including his highly controversial split-decision loss to Timothy Bradley in 2012. But when Pacquiao got his revenge over Bradley in a unanimous decision in April of this year, Pernick was also one of the judges.

Levi Martinez

Martinez was part of the crew that awarded Pacquaio a unanimous decision over Ghana’s Joshua Clottey in 2010. Earlier this year, fans weren’t so much displeased with his scorecard giving Canelo Alvarez a victory over Erislandy Lara, but by how big a margin he scored the fight in Alvarez’s favor, according to Boxing Insider.

Patrick J. Morley

The only judge to never to work with Pacquiao or Algieri, Morley’s been a judge since 2009 according to BoxingRec. Perhaps trying to catch up to his colleagues in overall experience, Morley’s judged 42 fights this year. He’s also a lawyer and former police officer, and co-authored “Third Man In The Ring”, a book on boxing’s best referees.