By Michael Collins: WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2, 38 KO’s) still feels he deserves a 50-50 split of the revenue in a possible mega fight against WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0, 26 KO’s). However, Mayweather Jr. doesn’t agree and sees Pacquiao as deserving less and won’t agree to fight him unless he’s willing to take a smaller cut of the pie.
That’s a non-starter says Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum, and he’s poised to go with one of his own picks among four candidates for a fight that will take place on June 9th in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arum probably doesn’t mind so much to walk away from what would be Pacquiao’s biggest payday of his career because Pacquiao will make half of that no matter who Arum puts him in with. But Pacquiao is starting to fade as a fighter as we witnessed in his last fight against Juan Manuel Marquez last November, and he’s very lucky to have won that fight over the 38-year-old Marquez.
If Pacquiao continues to struggle like this in beating the guys that Arum is feeding him, he’s not going to be able to ask for a 50-50 deal with Mayweather without being laughed at by Mayweather a lot of the boxing world. I imagine that if Pacquiao struggles to beat the next guy Arum puts him in with, Arum will probably respond by finding steadily weaker opposition so that Pacquiao will be able to still win like he once did.
We’ve seen some of that with Arum’s matchmaking with his fighter WBA junior middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. If you’ll notice, Cotto is being put in with strictly beatable guys nowadays after suffering losses to Antonio Margarito and Pacquiao, as well as a close call against Joshua Clottey.
Pacquiao still won’t be able to ask for a 50-50 deal if all he’s facing are Arum’s fading stable fighters. The boxing public isn’t stupid. They’ll notice that Pacquiao is being spoon fed weak opponents in order to keep him winning.