Leigh K. Seto: Recently released PPV figures for Manny Pacquiao’s latest fight against “What’s his name?” were dismal. Regardless if the numbers were 300k or 400k its well below the 800k Arum announced prior to the fight. What Manny has to do is look at the negotiations with Floyd like two companies merging. Both partners will bring a certain amount of business to the table. What Mayweather will show are PPV numbers over the past 3 years that average over a million buys. What Manny is bringing to the table are substantially lower numbers. By the way, a few months ago he said he’d fight Mayweather for free! So declining any sum from Mayweather’s camp will make Manny’s plea look like a media stunt.
Let’s look at the benefits. First, he’ll be back in the lime light and big stage (His recent numbers indicate he’s lost casual fans). His style is exciting and fun. He will draw in more fans for his future fights and rekindle his brand in the U.S and abroad. Now, lets look at the money. In his last two fights he’s made 20 million a fight. The numbers for Canelo vs Mayeather were 2.2 million buys.
Lets say Mayweather vs Pacquiao does 3 million buys. At $100 per PPV buy and at 30% his take on the fight would be 71 million (after paying 30% promoters fee). That is a lot of money and nothing to be ashamed of. Finally, Roach and Arum are very confident that Manny will win right? Mayweather has already requested a rematch clause in the contract. So, if Pacquiao does win he will have the ability to dictate the terms. Mayweather would be forced to take less money, because for certain he’d do anything to avenge his first loss. Who knows the rematch may be even bigger than the first fight and after everything is said and done after 2 fights he could possibly make more money that Floyd. When you look at the big picture a 70/30 split can work out just fine for Pacquiao.
The bigger question will be if Mayweather will work with Bob Arum. Mayweather and Dela Hoya realized later in their career that they were famous and no longer needed a Promoter. Promoters are only necessary for no-name, up and coming fighters. Well established fighters like Mayweather and Pacquiao can just go to espn and announce a fight or go on Jimmy Fallon and announce the fight. Mayweather and Manny already have fame. So, trying to sell Mayweather on the idea of splitting the promoters fee of 30% is difficult because 30% of 3million ppv buys at $100 each is a total of 90 million dollars! How can you justify Mayweather splitting that with Arum? Mayweather can sell this fight by himself and get the ppv buys to 3 million. So, we will see if Mayweather like Pacquiao will be able to make this difficult decision. I also don’t see Mayweather allowing the very Pacquiao biased HBO commentator Jim Lampley to cover the fight.
These negotiations are much more complex than fans know. But, from every published report both sides are working diligently to get it done. We can only hope Manny sees that 70/30 may not be so bad after all. It will definitely win him some votes in the publics eye. It will show that he is really trying to make the fight happen and not just using Floyd as a media ploy to promote his other fights.
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