This. Fight. Needs. To. Happen!
After Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao stopped Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico to earn his astonishing seventh title in as many divisions last Saturday night in Las Vegas, NV, making him the first fighter in history to reach that feat, the over 17,000 fight fans in attendance at the MGM Grand instantaneously began to chant “We want Floyd!” over and over in hopes that the phrase will reach the heavens and and in turn, the boxing gods.
No explanation of which “Floyd” the rabid pack of boxing aficionados were calling for. The former recognized pound for pound champion, Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr (40-0, 25KO) is coming off a lopsided twelve round decision over three time world champion Juan Manuel Marquez last September. Just four days after the mega fight between Pacquiao and Cotto, hundreds of opinions and comments have been posted through out the internet. As expected, Mayweather is stating his case of what the fight means to him and his well protected legacy.
“I’m in a no-win situation. If I beat Manny Pacquiao (50-3-2, 38KO) you know what they are going to say” “You are supposed to beat him, you are Floyd Mayweather, you are the bigger man.’ If I knock him out they’ll say, ‘You’re supposed to knock him out, he’s been knocked out before.’, Mayweather stated. “I’m in a no-win situation and when I beat him no one is going to be surprised because he’s been beaten before. Whatever I do to Pacquiao has been done before. He’s been beaten on three occasions and If I knock him out I don’t want the world shouting because he’s been knocked out twice before [as a flyweight in the 1990],” he said.
Interestingly, Mayweather had none of those reservations with the three common opponents he shares with Pacquiao. By the time Mayweather defeated De La Hoya via split decision, the “Golden Boy’ had been defeated numerous times and stopped by Bernard Hopkins. Juan Manuel Marquez had been defeated by Pacquiao himself among a few others by this past September when Mayweather was awarded another twelve round decision over the tough Mexican. Mayweather did deal Ricky Hatton his first defeat via KO in their December 8th, 2007 mega bout while Pacquiao devastatingly knocked out the “Hitman” from Manchester in the second round earlier this year.
Not surprisingly, whether this super fight comes to fruition will mainly depend on one thing which just happens to be Mayweather’s moniker: Money.
It has already been speculated that the contest could generate a $40-50 million purse and break the all time PPV buy high of 2.45 million set by Mayweather-De La Hoya in 2007.
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s advisor, has stated that his charge is willing to accept the fight but only if Mayweather receives the “lion’s share of the money.”
“This is business, not a high school popularity contest,” Ellerbe said to Yahoo Sports. “Look at the three common opponents. Floyd did 2.45 million against Oscar De La Hoya; Pacquiao did 1.25 million. Floyd did a million against Marquez; they are lucky if their two fights combined to 800,00. We did 940,000 with Ricky Hatton and they did 810,000. Those are the numbers and the numbers don’t lie.”
Ellerbe left out that the first Pacquiao-Marquez bout was on HBO and not on PPV.
Although arguments can be made for what De La Hoya, Hatton and Marquez brought to the table as far as PPV popularity in their respective matches against Pacquaio and Mayweather, the hard numbers don’t fail to give the edge to Mayweather as far as what the purse distribution should be. The numbers for Pacquiao-Cotto have not been released yet but are estimated to be well over 1 Million and as much as 1.5 Million.
Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports posted in his most recent boxing mailbag that a fair revenue distribution in his eyes was a 45/45 split with the remaining ten percent going to the winner. I don’t see either camp agreeing to such a contract since it would assume that both fighters are equal and “Money” would never put himself on the same plane as another fighter. The only time he has taken less in purse split would have to be assumed that it was against DLH because it would be preposterous to believe that Mayweather assumed that he was the “Golden Boy’s” equal. It would be more believable that the split would be 55/45 in Mayweather’s favor with Pacquiao taking the back seat to ensure the fans the mega fight that they all want to see.
As mentioned before, the Mayweather camp is willing to fight if the money is right. Mayweather has made an issue that when Pacquiao is asked if he would like to fight Mayweather, he defers to his promoter Bob Arum and states that he will fight anybody that Top Rank puts in front of him but never calling out Mayweather by name.
Pacquiao’s trainer, Freddie Roach, has no qualms in showing interest in a Mayweather match up.
“I’ve thought about Mayweather for a long time now,” Roach told ESPN.com. “He’s the ultimate opponent. His style does pose some problems because he’s very at what he does but after seeing Manny with Cotto, Manny showed he takes a punch well. We’ll definitely knock Mayweather out. He’ll break down. He can’t stand up to Manny’s pressure. He won’t last as long as Cotto.
“I got a feeling Mayweather doesn’t really want to fight Manny. When he says he wants 65 percent, that’s like saying he doesn’t want to fight.”
It would be hard to believe that either fighter will not want to be part of what might be the biggest fight event in the last twenty years. According to Iole of Yahoo Sports, Top Rank’s head honcho Bob Arum has heard from the representatives of major stadiums such as the New Orleans Superdome, Dallas Cowboys stadium, Giants stadium and the Sam Boyd stadium in Las Vegas in hopes of hosting the event. The Wynn Resorts has even gone as far as to offer the construction of a 30,000 seating venue built especially for the fight.
Photo by Chris Cozzone
Although it is believed that not a single word has been spoken between the respective representatives of each fighter in terms of the fight, odd makers in Las Vegas have begun to speculate on the result with mixed results. Various casinos have placed the man from General Santos City as the favorite at a tight 8-5 while others put Mayweather as the favorite at -170 while Pacquiao at +150.
Despite the the various roadblocks, odds are the fight will be made sooner than later and perhaps as the next fight for each other fighter since a loss for either one in a tune up can spell disaster in the revenue that the blockbuster match up could generate.
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