By Scott Gilfoid: I don’t see what the problem is for Ricky Hatton. Manny Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) is offering him an excellent deal of a 60-40 split and here Hatton wants to screw things up by asking for a 50-50 split. Hatton needs to take the offer and be happy that he’s getting it. In boxing, the better fighter generally always gets the bigger purse, that’s just the way things are done.
Few would disagree that Hatton, 30, isn’t at the same level as Pacquiao in terms of talent and prior experience. What it boils down to is this: Pacquiao deserves the bigger split given his victories over excellent fighters like Juan Manuel Marquez, Oscar De La Hoya, Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera, David Diaz and Jorge Solis.
In Hatton’s case, he’s only fought faded versions of Kostya Tszyu, Vince Phillips, Jose Luis Castillo and Ben Tackie. Of Hatton’s other notable fights, he’s been stopped by Floyd Mayeather Jr., beaten a weak-punching Paulie Malignaggi, defeated Juan Urango and struggled in beating Luis Collazo and Juan Lazcano. I hate to rain on Hatton’s parade, but those fighters don’t come close to the opposition that Pacquiao has successfully beaten.
The biggest name on Hatton’s resume, Mayweather, ended up being him by a 10th round TKO. Why, then, should Hatton be allowed to ask for a purse split on even turns? For me, a 60-40 split is more than a generous offer for Hatton. Hatton, as far as I’m concerned, deserves no better than a 70-30 split with Pacquiaio since Ricky hasn’t proven that he’s got the talent to get a bigger share.
Of course, I would have seen things differently if Hatton had fought the best light welterweights in the division, like Junior Witter, Timothy Bradley, Ricardo Torres, Kendall Holt and Andreas Kotelnik. But for some reason, Hatton has chose not to face these fighters. Instead, he’s opted for fighters that I consider far lesser in talent and has cruised to an nearly unblemished record.
Pacquiao doesn’t look to be willing to budge on his offer of his desire for a bigger slice of the pie, so unless Hatton is willing to budge, we may end up seeing Pacquiao move on to a fight against Mayweather instead. Thought some people are saying that fight won’t make nearly as much PPV dollars for Pacquiaio then a fight against Hatton would, but don’t believe it.
Mayweather is clearly the more popular fighter worldwide, not just in the U.S, and would bring in millions. Whether Pacquiao takes a 50-50 split with Mayweather or comes out on the short end, I think Pacquiao will still make out a lot better than he would if he settles for a 50-50 split with Hatton.
And after Pacquiao gets through dealing with Mayweather, I imagine Hatton would be more than willing to accept the 60-40 that Pacquiao was offering to him. Hatton needs to wise up and realize that he’s got a good thing in taking a smaller cut with Pacquiao. I mean, it isn’t as if he has any other options out there that will bring him in comparable money.
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