It’s not looking good for Pacquiao in landing Marquez rematch for September

By Boxing News - 04/08/2013 - Comments

pac006By Chris Williams: Bob Arum is going to need to either open up his piggy bank and spill out a lot more green cash or he’s going to have to book WBO welterweight champion Tim Bradley for Manny Pacquiao’s next fight in September in Macao, China, because Juan Manuel Marquez is saying he wants no part of a fifth fight with Pacquiao.

Marquez, 39, feels he’s accomplished enough in his four fights with the Filipino and he doesn’t need to keep fighting him. Marquez wants to capture a fifth world title and the fight he wants is against Bradley, not Pacquiao.

Bradley has a belt and Pacquiao doesn’t have a strap after losing it to Bradley. I’m sure Arum can change that by stepping in front of Marquez’s plans of fighting Bradley by snatching Bradley away for Pacquiao to fight if Marquez continues to say no to a fifth fight with Pacquiao. But even if Arum does that there are no guarantees that Marquez will say yes to the fight. He might look at trying to land a title fight against one of the other welterweight champions that aren’t promoted by Arum because he wants the 147 lb. strap.

Arum has the power to make a fifth fight between Marquez and Pacquiao if he really wants the fight badly. All Arum has to do is offer Marquez a 50-50 deal in terms of the purse split instead of the 76-24 deal that Marquez got last time he fought Pacquiao last December.

If Arum bumps up the cash to where they’re both even in the money they make, I’m sure Marquez would say yes in a second. Last time they fought there was $29 million pot to split between the two of them and Pacquiao received the lion’s share of the loot by taking $23 million compared to just $6 million for Marquez.

A fifth fight will likely have a lot more money on the line given the interest from boxing fans curious to see if Marquez will knock Pacquiao out cold again, and so I see there being at least $35 million to split up between the two of them. That’s $17.5 million each.

Pacquiao won’t get his usual $20 million for the fight, but it would be close to that and he’d have the opportunity to try and avenge his defeat from last December where Marquez knocked him clean out. But if Arum isn’t going to give Marquez a 50-50 deal and talk something like 70-30, then obviously the fight won’t get made.

Marquez should get a 50-50 deal this time and he definitely deserves it because a good portion of the PPV buys that are generated in the United States are from his Mexican fans.



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