By Chris Williams: Trainer Freddie Roach says his fighter WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) is prepared to fight WBA/WBC 147 pound champ Floyd Mayweather Jr (46-0, 26 KOs) at whatever weight of his choosing.
Roach is so confident of the 35-year-old Pacquiao’s skills that he’s ready to agree to whatever weight that Mayweather wants to for the fight. Considering that Mayweather is pretty much a welterweight and would likely only want to fight at whatever weight Pacquiao is comfortable with, it really isn’t a big deal that Roach is willing to agree to Mayweather’s wishes on the weight for a mega-fight between the two fighters.
“We’ll [Pacquiao] fight Mayweather at whatever weight he wants to fight at,” Roach said via Fightnews at the San Francisco Giants media day. “He’s [Mayweather] shot. He’s done. His legs are gone based on his last two fights. He says he doesn’t move in order to make it more exciting for the fans. Bull [expletive].”
You can kind of tune out what Roach is saying about Mayweather being shot and his legs being gone. That’s probably just Roach talking to try and hype of the fight, and get boxing fans interested enough in the match-up to pay to see Pacquiao fight Chris Algieri on HBO pay-per-view on November 22nd.
With Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum sticking the fight in Macao, China, he pretty much limits dramatically the amount of U.S boxing fans and media that will be able to see the fight. It’s not cheap to purchase tickets to fly all the way to China and stay long enough to see the fight.
What is at issue for a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight is the purse split and the drug testing. Mayweather will likely want full random blood testing from Pacquiao, and he’s probably not going to go for any excuses about Pacquiao being weakened when he has a thimble full of blood taken from him.
Additionally, Mayweather probably won’t go for Pacquiao getting a 17-day no testing break before the fight. Mayweather will likely want the full testing without limits.
The money split is what could ultimately unravel the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight negotiations, because you can’t expect Pacquiao to get a 50-50 purse split at this point. It’s too late in the game for that to happen. Pacquiao was beaten by Juan Manuel Marquez and Tim Bradley, and Pacquiao’s recent fights against Bradley and Brandon Rios have brought in low PPV numbers.
What’s going to likely further hurt Pacquiao is his upcoming fight against Chris Algieri on November 22nd in Macao. If the fight brings in small pay-per-view numbers, such as in the 500,000 PPV buy range or lower, then I’d be surprised if Pacquiao will get any more than a 30% cut in a fight against Mayweather.
Pacquiao getting the short money on a 70/30 purse split deal would be similar to the 76/24 deal that Marquez got in his recent fight against Pacquiao. Marquez brought in a ton of his Mexican fans to purchase the fight, but had to settle for a 24% split. You can’t expect Pacquiao to get an even split with Mayweather if Pacquiao’s fights are bringing in far fewer PPV buys.
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