Op-Ed: Purse split seen to make or break Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown

During the early stages of negotiations, the manner of sharing the purse has always been a contentious issue that remained unresolved until today. Other issues including random blood and urine testing, weight limits, venue and billing, among others things, have practically been resolved. About a year ago, I wrote an article on Bleacher Report entitled: “Manny Pacquiao Agrees to Everything Mayweather Wants to Secure His Next Fight.”
In the article I said: “One of the major conditions demanded by Mayweather during the early stage of negotiations almost three years ago was the Olympic-style drug test (OSDT), which required Pacquiao to submit to a random drug test all the way up to the day of the fight.” Mayweather believed Pacquiao was taking performance enhancing drugs which gave him an added advantage over his opponents during his previous fights. In order to come to an agreement, Pacquiao offered a 14-day drug testing window, saying he feels weak when blood is taken from his body and would need a few days to recover. Mayweather balked at Pacquiao’s offer and after weeks and months of negotiations, Pacquiao relented and changed his offer to seven days. Still, Mayweather continued to criticize Pacquiao for his refusal to join him in what he called an action necessary to clean the sport of boxing. In his desire to give boxing fans the fight they have long wanted to see, Pacquiao finally decided to agree on Mayweather’s demand without preconditions. Read more: So everything that Mayweather wanted, he got Pacquiao to agree more than a year ago. The only issue that remains until today is the sharing of the fight purse.
Mayweather’s last offer to Pacquiao was $40 million lump sum with no share whatsoever in the pay-per-view (PPV) and gate receipts. Prior to the lump sum offer, Pacquiao was ready to sign on a 50-50- purse split but Mayweather turned it down. The purse issue will determine the fate of the fight if negotiations will be revived following Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum’s latest initiative to resume talks with Mayweather’s handlers. Certainly Pacquiao will turn down Mayweather’s last lump sum offer of $40 million as he knows he can make at least double the amount if he is allowed to share in the PPV and other sales inputs which is estimated to generate $300 million in revenues, according to Arum. Asked about the possibility of having the fight done in 2014, Arum said yes as he pointed possible ways to do it. “On our side the answer is yes [the fight can be made in 2014], we’re very open to it,” Arum said. “There are ways it can get done, they have to dumb down the rhetoric, we are prepared to dumb down the rhetoric and get it done. “There is no real impediment to having that fight happen whether it will or not depends completely on the Mayweather side. I can see it happening but I can’t predict that it will happen because it takes two to tango.” Still, the contentious issue of splitting the fight purse remains a big hurdle for Mayweather and Pacquiao’s handlers which could make or break the fight that every boxing fan in the world wants to see.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/363506#ixzz2mpaYbh5k

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *