By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) is said to be only interested in coming back for a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. and no one else, according to an insider for Philstar.
Pacquiao is still recovering from shoulder surgery on a torn rotator cuff injury that he aggravated in his last fight against Mayweather on May 2nd. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is interested in bringing him back next year in a fight in Dubai against possibly someone like Amir Khan or Kell Brook. However, the insider says that Pacquiao isn’t interested in fighting in a Middle Eastern country.
Pacquiao just wants the Mayweather fight, which would obviously take place in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s unknown why Arum wants Pacquiao to fight in Dubai. He already had him fighting in Macau, China on two occasions in fights that brought in poor PPV numbers. It would seem like it’s not in Pacquiao’s best interest to fight outside of the U.S, because that’s where his big PPV money comes from.
“There is talk in Pacquiao’s camp that if and when he decides to return to the ring, the man opposite his corner will be only Mayweather,” said Joaquin Henson via Philstar.com. “Pacquiao isn’t interested to fight anybody else, said an insider, quashing speculation of an Amir Khan duel sometime in the future, somewhere in the Middle East.”
If Pacquiao wants the Mayweather fight then he’s going to need to start making some overtures towards getting that fight done. It might mean Pacquiao himself making the phone call to Mayweather rather than letting Arum do the job. We saw how Pacquiao’s meeting with Mayweather at the Miami Heat game was able to produce their May 2nd fight. It’s possible that Pacquiao will need to grab the bull by the horns to try and get the rematch done by doing the hard work himself.
Mayweather might actually give Pacquiao a second fight but only if he’s willing to come in at the right price. In other words, if Pacquiao is willing to accept the right split of the revenue, Mayweather might be agreeable to a second fight. What would that split likely need to be? I’d say somewhere in the region of 65-35 or maybe even 70-30 in Mayweather’s favor. To the winner goes the spoils. Mayweather won their last fight on May 2nd, so it’s understandable that the split of the money would go from 60-40, which was the split the last time, to something more tilted in Mayweather’s favor like 70-30. Arum was talking about Pacquiao potentially getting a better cut this time than 60-40, which makes no sense at all. If that’s the direction that Arum is going in for the rematch, then I don’t see a second fight taking place. I believe that the only way Pacquiao is going to interest Mayweather in a second fight is if he’s willing to give him the money split that he feels is fair, be it 70-30 or 65-35.
I bet Arum won’t like the idea of Pacquiao not being interested in fighting in Dubai, because it sounds like Arum was counting on him being receptive to the idea. Arum does have a lot of other guys in his Top Rank stable that he can stick over in Dubai to help open up the country for fights and possible PPV in the future. Arum can have Jessie Vargas, Tim Bradley and Terence Crawford fight over there for several years. I doubt that the interest would be even one-tenth that of Pacquiao fighting over there.
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