By Dave Lahr: With Ricky Hatton walking away from a fight with Manny Pacquiao due to a disagreement over the purse split, where does Manny go from here? The Hatton fight was a perfect fight after Manny’s fight with De La Hoya, which netted Pacquiao a big payday. Manny would have received another big day if he had settled for 50% split with Hatton instead of asking for 60.
Instead, Pacquiao will have to move on to other opponents, most of which will bring in far less than what he might have received in a fight with Hatton. Unfortunately for Pacquiao, aside from Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya, there’s not really any other big name fighters out there that would bring in the kind of money that Hatton would.
You can pretty much scratch off De La Hoya’s name immediately from the list, because probably neither Oscar or the boxing public would want this. Mayweather is a good opponent, there’s no question about it, but that would be a tough fight for Pacquiao, one that he probably wouldn’t win.
Mayweather is bigger, almost as fast and a much more polished fighter than Manny, and would give him serious trouble if they were to fight. If Pacquiao thought he had problems with Juan Manuel Marquez, just wait until he steps foot in the ring with Mayweather.
Pacquiaio could fight a third fight against Marquez. That would be a great fight and one that many fans would be interested in seeing. However, Pacquiao would have to settle for a much smaller payday than he would have received if he faced Hatton.
Besides that, Marquez is a very difficult opponent and according to many fans, he should have beaten Pacquiao in both of their two previous fights. Pacquiao would be faced with a very tough fight should he decide on mixing it up with Marquez again.
It wouldn’t be the easy time he had against De La Hoya, so hopefully he hasn’t become spoiled after having such an easy fight against Oscar. This fight will take all the abilities that Manny has to win. Nate Campbell, the IBF/WBO lightweight champion, is an option for Pacquiao. Campbell is considered by many to be the top lightweight in the division next to Pacquiao and he would be a very appealing opponent.
However, he’s very dangerous, with a high work rate and good power. He’s not very popular, however. Again, this would be another fight where Pacquiao would be pushed to the limit without getting the big paycheck that he received against De La Hoya and the one that he would have made if he had fought Hatton.
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