By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach is complaining that Juan Manuel Marquez (56-7-1, 40 KO’s) is asking for $20 million for a fifth fight against Pacquiao in November, and that Marquez’s request is a show stopper. Roach says that a reasonable amount for Marquez to make for the fight is $10 million only, according to thesweetscience.com. But with Marquez asking for $20 million, it means that a fight can’t take place between them.
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum recently said that Pacquiao will be getting around $30 million for his fights. If this is true, it means that there’s a potential $40 million pot of money that can be divided up for a 5th Pacquiao-Marquez fight. If you divide the money equally, then each fighter can walk away with $20 million, and Pacquiao would get his chance of trying to avenge his loss to Marquez.
Marquez received the short end of a 76/24 split in the last fight he had with Pacquiao in 2012, and that was a fight that brought in close to 1 million pay-per-view buys. Since then, Pacquiao has seen his PPV totals tank in fights against Brandon Rios and Tim Bradley, with neither fight bringing in even 900,000 PPV buys.
This means that Pacquiao absolutely needs Marquez to bring in the huge amount of buys unless Arum can get someone like Saul “Canelo” Alvarez for Pacquiao, which obviously isn’t going to happen because Canelo won’t agree to fight Pacquiao at a catch-weight like Roach and his personal adviser Michael Koncz wants. There won’t be a Pacquiao-Canelo fight, ever. Canelo is even bigger than WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto, and Pacquiao isn’t rushing in to face Cotto now due to him fighting at middleweight.
With Marquez wanting an equal split of the purse with Pacquiao this time around, Roach says that IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Danny Garcia would be a good option for Pacquiao. Arum would like Amir Khan for Pac, but Roach doesn’t like that option. He thinks Khan holds too much.
The reality here is unless Pacquiao gives Marquez what he’s asking for in terms of equal money, he’s not going to take the fight. Marquez brings in his Mexican fans for the PPV fights with Pacquiao, and it’s quite possible that the majority of the PPV buys for the Pacquiao-Marquez fights are actually fans of Marquez. That’s obviously why he’s asking for an equal split this time around instead of the 76-24 split the last time he fought Pacquiao.
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