By Chris Williams: While Floyd Mayweather Jr. got $100 million for his last fight against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KO’s) will be getting a guarantee payday of $18 million for this Saturday’s fight against Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KO’s) in Macao, China. Pacquiao could get a lot more if the fight does well on pay-per-view in the United States, which is where Pacquiao will be making a good portion of his money. He could make as much as $30 million after the PPV totals come in.
His promoter Bob Arum chose China for Pacquiao to fight due to the lower tax burden for Pacquiao from the U.S money he receives from fans. Arum also wants to open the Chinese markets for PPV in the future, so he’s trying to create interest by holding cards there and having former two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming (2-0) on his Macao fight cards. What’s interesting is that 32-year-old flyweight Shiming will be getting $500,000 for his 6-round bout against novice Juan Tozcano (4-0, 1 KO’s), and that’s a lot of money for someone who has looked poor in his first two bouts of his pro career against poor opposition.
Arum told Yahoo Sports “Without him [Zou Shiming], none of us would be here.”
Unless Arum can find out a way to monetize his Macao fight cards to sell them to the Chinese audiences through PPV, then it’s going to be a waste of time other than Arum holding out his foreign fighters from not having to pay the higher U.S taxes that they would be hit with if the fight cards took place in the U.S.
Pacquiao could end up getting a career-high payday for this fight largely due to the lower taxes on his earnings. He says he’d like to fight in the U.S in the future, but he’s leaving that up to Arum whether he fights in the U.S or not. With Arum wanting to open up the Chinese markets for PPV, it’s likely that the remaining fights in Pacquiao’s career will all take place in China. China has a huge population, so Arum and Pacquiao could make a bundle in the future if he’s able to get the Chinese to pay to see the fight cards. They’ll obviously have to become big fans of the sport first before Arum can ask them to pay to see the cards. I’m not sure if this is realistic over the short term. Arum is 82, and it might take a while to build up enough interest in China with boxing to ask them to pay to see the fights. If Arum is patient and he lives long enough, I can see the Chinese markets opening up in 5-10 years, but I doubt it’ll happen before then.
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