By Eric Thomas: It looks as if the negotiations are continuing with Oscar De La Hoya and Manny Pacquiao for De La Hoya’s farewell fight on December 6th. According to boxing writer Dennis Principe from Fightnews, De La Hoya has upped the offer to lightweight Pacquiao, increasing it from 70-30 to a 67-33 purse split with Pacquiao, of course, to get the much smaller 33% PPV split. Now it remains to be seen whether Pacquiao will go for the offer or still insist on the 60-40 purse split that he originally asked for at the start of negotiations. Pacquiao may instead like the idea reportedly offered by his trainer Freddie Roach, who came up with the idea of De La Hoya getting a 60% purse split and Pacquiao getting 30%, and then the winner getting the remaining 10% purse split.
Nothing has been said of that idea, and I can only imagine that De La Hoya, who is no longer fighting at the top of his game, might not like that idea very much. It would, however, be a sporting way to solve the issue and would seem to make the most sense of all. If Pacquiao is stuck on getting 40%, why not let him fight to get to that level? For either fighter, it would take some courage to accept such a deal, because they’d be potentially giving up a lot if they were to lose. Both, of course, can afford it I’m sure.
The better fight – the fight that most knowledgeable boxing fans want to see – would be De La Hoya vs. Antonio Margarito, the WBA welterweight champion. However, De La Hoya isn’t interested in the fight for some reason. Given his slight weight advantage over Margarito, it would be a fight that most boxing experts would see as a more equal fight than De La Hoya’s perspective fight with the 130 lb Pacquiao.
However, Margarito isn’t nearly as popular as Pacquiao with boxing fans around the globe, and the fight, as exciting as it might end up being, wouldn’t likely bring in the huge PPV numbers that De La Hoya would like to attract for his final fight on December 6th. For this reason, and perhaps because De La Hoya would like to go out on a winning note rather than suffering a terrible beating, Margarito isn’t being sought after as an opponent.
Instead, if De La Hoya isn’t able to come to an agreement with Pacquiao over the purse split, we may see De La Hoya fighting the winner of Sergio Mora vs. Vernon Forrest, a fight which takes place on September 13th. I doubt that De La Hoya wants to fight either of them, because a fight against either would bring in far less money than a fight with Pacquiao, and probably a lot less than a fight with Margarito as well.
I think for that reason, De La Hoya will work as hard as he possibly can at exhausting every avenue in trying to make the fight with Pacquiao work. Although I think De La Hoya would like to go out against a fighter his own size, he obviously wants to take the better deal financially against the much more marketable Pacquiao.
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