Roach: Marquez wants close to a 50-50 split for Pacquiao 5th fight

By Boxing News - 04/10/2013 - Comments

pac890By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach isn’t sure if a fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez can be put together because the 39-year-old Marquez wants parity in the money split between the two fighters.

Marquez has consistently taken a much smaller money split in his four previous fights with the Filipino but after knocking him out in the 6th round last December, Marquez wants close to a 50-50 deal to fight him again. You can’t blame him because Pacquiao’s last two fights against Marquez have drawn 1.4 million and 1.15 million pay per view buys.

In contrast, Pacquiao’s fights against Joshua Clottey and Tim Bradley drew far fewer numbers and it’s still unclear what the final totals where for both of those fights because the numbers that were mentioned seem highly inflated.

Roach said to sweetscience.com “Marquez wants just about a 50-50 split. Manny brings butts in seats, pay-per-view-wise, Manny is the guy.”

I think Roach is forgetting the fact that Marquez is bringing in huge PPV numbers from his Mexican fans. He’s like another Canelo Alvarez with his popularity and I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the PPV buys are coming from Marquez’s Mexican fans in the United States because the Hispanic community outnumbers the Filipino community in the United States.

Roach can say that Pacquiao is the one that puts backsides in seats but Marquez is the one that is pumping up Pacquiao’s PPV numbers and I think Bob Arum realizes this because that’s why he’s so eager to try and get Marquez to face Pacquiao for a fifth time. Arum and Pacquiao are the ones that want this fight, not Marquez. They’re the ones pushing for this fight.

If you have something that you really want then the price goes up if he seller isn’t interested in selling at the cheap price.

Marquez took the smaller 76-24 split last time he fought Pacquiao, but you can’t blame him for wanting to receive an even split this time. Why should he take less when he’s the one that has been bringing in massive amounts of Mexican fans for their PPV fights? It’s not fair.

Canelo Alvarez himself chose not to fight on Floyd Mayweather Jr’s undercard when he couldn’t get an agreement for a September fight. Canelo realized how much he could bring to the card by pumping up Mayweather’s PPV numbers by agreeing to fight on his undercard, but when Mayweather wouldn’t give him some of the action by agreeing to fight him in September so that he could share in the money, Canelo decided against fighting on Mayweather’s card.

It’s the same with Marquez. If he’s not going to get an even split with Pacquiao for their fifth fight then it’s not worth it for him because it’s Marquez’s fans that would make the fight huge and yet wouldn’t be getting paid what he deserves.

If Arum and Pacquiao fail to agree to give Marquez his 50-50 deal then Arum will put Pacquiao in with likely Tim Bradley. The other options are Mike Alvarado or Brandon Rios, but don’t count on that happening because the danger is too high for the Filipino and the PPV numbers would likely be poor because Rios and Alvarado aren’t big names.



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