It might take a 50-50 deal to lure Marquez into fighting Pacquiao again

By Boxing News - 02/05/2013 - Comments

marquez2By Chris Williams: The days of Bob Arum getting Juan Manuel Marquez to fight Manny Pacquiao for the smaller purse splits appears to be over now that Marquez has said no to a fifth fight with Pacquiao. Marquez says he has nothing else to prove by facing Pacquiao for a fifth fight because he’s already proved that he’s the better fighter in their four fights.

With the huge money that could be snatched in a fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez, you can bet that Arum will try hard to make this fight happen in September despite Marquez’s comments about being done with Pacquiao. This would be Pacquiao’s biggest fight of his career in terms of pay per view buys, and Arum likely won’t want to let that money get away.

But for the Pacquiao-Marquez 5th fight to take place, it’s pretty much a given that Arum is going to have to dramatically change the purse split from what it was previously in their last fight to a likely 50-50 deal for Marquez to say yes to the fight.

Last time Pacquiao and Marquez fought last December, Pacquiao received a guaranteed $25 million to Marquez’s $3 million. Isn’t that like a 88/12 deal in favor of Pacquiao? That doesn’t even come out to 20% for Marquez. That number has to come up when you figure that a huge amount of the PPV buys for the last two Pacquiao-Marquez fights have come from Marquez’s Mexican fans in the United States. Look at the numbers.

There are over 33 million Mexicans living in the U.S compared to only 3.4 million Filipinos. I’d be willing to guess that the majority of the PPV buys for the last two Pacquiao-Marquez fights have been from Mexican boxing fans instead of Pacquiao’s loyal fans.

If Arum really wants Marquez to face Pacquiao in September, then he’s likely going to have to give him an even percentage split of the financial pot by making it a 50-50 fight. You can’t have Marquez’s fans purchasing the fight in higher numbers, yet Pacquiao is getting the purse split tilted heavily in his favor.



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