By Chris Williams: Manny Pacquiao’s loss to Tim Bradley meant a lot of things, many of them bad for the Filipino fighter. Not only will he have to use up his last fight in 2012 fighting a rematch against the newly crowned WBO welterweight champion Bradley on November 10th, he’ll likely have to take a smaller cut of the financial pie for this fight now that Bradley is the champion and he’s just the challenger.
But more important than all of that is the probability that a big money fight against unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is all but lost now. Oh, it’s still possible to put the fight together, but only if Pacquiao agrees to take a significantly smaller slice of the revenue for the fight. Mayweather recently offered the Filipino fighter a very generous $40 million to fight him. Pacquiao said now, and instead gambled – and lost – by choosing to take a much smaller payday against Bradley. In hindsight, Pacquiao obviously should have swallowed his pride and taken the big cash in a fight against Mayweather. That money obviously won’t be there now if Pacquiao is still interested in facing Mayweather.
Instead of a $40 million offer from Mayweather, I wouldn’t be surprised if Pacquiao is given a mere $20 million offer next time around. Pacquiao can forget all about a 50-50 offer from Mayweather now. How can Pacquiao still ask for a 50-50 deal when he’s been beaten by Bradley. It’s not that Mayweather won’t want to fight Pacquiao, because he surely will. But he’s not stupid enough to give Pacquiao a 50-50 when he can’t even beat Bradley. Pacquiao has been weeded out by Bradley. If he still wants to get in the ring with the UNBEATEN Mayweather, Pacquiao will have to accept the fact that he’s not at the same level. I can just see Pacquiao coming to the negotiation table with Mayweather, saying he still deserves a 50-50 deal with the Money man. Pacquiao will have to bring a good set of earmuffs with him because Mayweather will laugh him out of the room.
Again, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight CAN still be made, but only if Pacquiao wises up, sees his situation now, and comes to the bargaining table in a slightly bent over position, ready to grovel a lot. The fight can be made but Pacquiao will have to accept his 30% offer and be happy he’s getting it. Believe me, it’s smarter for Pacquiao to take that money now than to ignore it and get beaten again by Bradley or one of his promoter Bob Arum’s other Top Rank stable fighters.
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