By Michael Collins: Bob Arum has made it known that if Floyd Mayweather Jr. wants to fight Manny Pacquiao in May, he’s going to have to back off his demand for a better than 50-50 purse split with the Filipino fighter.
Unless Mayweather acts quick to agree to a 50-50 deal, Arum will reportedly be going with Pacquiao’s choice of one of the four back up alternatives for his next fight instead of facing Mayweather.
Arum already met with Pacquiao on a visit to the Philippines where Pacquiao chose one fighter from the following list that Arum present him – Timothy Bradley, Lamont Peterson, Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez. Mayweather is Pacquiao’s number #1 pick but the negotiations can’t move forward as long as Mayweather insists on getting more money than Pacquiao.
If Mayweather fails to agree to a 50-50 deal, Arum will be making an announcement likely next week for a fight that will be taking place on June 9th at either the Thomas & Mack Center or the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mayweather could be asking for more money due to Pacquiao saying last month that he’d be willing to take less money to make the fight happen. Pacquiao may have just said that off the cuff and not thinking Mayweather would try and hold him to it, but it looks like that’s the case because Mayweather definitely wants the bigger cut of the pie.
You can make an argument that Mayweather deserves more money because he’s unbeaten and easily beat Juan Manuel Marquez, a fighter that Pacquiao barely beat recently last November. Mayweather beat Marquez two years ago when he was a little younger. That kind of gives you a good idea of who the better fighter is between Pacquiao and Mayweather. But it still doesn’t make any difference to Arum and Pacquiao, as they both want a 50-50 deal with Mayweather.