By Chris Williams: It looks like the September fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez won’t be taking place in the United States. According to RingTV, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants to stage the fight in Mexico City, Mexico in order for Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez to avoid the U.S taxes that they’d have to pay if they were to fight over there. Arum says there won’t be an April tune-up fight for Pacquiao.
Arum said to RingTV “Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight in the United States because he’d have to give close to 40 percent to the government…they [Pacquiao and Marquez] would prefer for the fight not to be in the United States.”
The taxes on the pay per view buys that are generated from the United States viewers, which likely are where Pacquiao and Marquez will get the bulk of their money for this fight, will no doubt be taxed no matter where the fight is staged outside of the country. You can’t imagine the U.S government letting that money go untaxed to Pacquiao, Arum and Marquez, so it’s not as if they’re making out that well by having the fight staged in Mexico City.
The thing that won’t be taxed on a high rate is the gate money for fans that pay to see the fight live. That’ll be decent money not the huge cash that comes from PPV.
Arum says he wants to stage the Pacquiao-Marquez fifth fight in an 18,000 seat arena in Mexico City, and he thinks it’ll be a safe area for visitors that come to watch Pacquiao and Marquez fight.
It’ll be interesting to see if all Pacquiao’s fights from now on are staged outside of the U.S to avoid taxes, but at the time still expecting American fans to pay big money to see the fights on PPV. You can see why Arum want to do this because there’s no telling how much time Pacquiao has left in his career and by fighting in Mexico or another foreign country, they can maximize the amount of money that they make with the little time he has left. You have to remember that Arum doesn’t have another big star that sells like Pacquiao, so when this is over it’s going to be tough to find someone that can sell.
Comments are closed.