Purse may derail Pacquiao bout with Mayweather

MANILA, Philippines - Only one thing could prevent a Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao fight from happening – a disagreement on the purse split.

This early, the boxing world is looking at a big clash between the two pound-for-pound champions, one that could easily land as the fight of the decade.

It could happen next year, in the latter part perhaps, and yet, again, this early, how the Big Apple is to be divided between the two camps is the big question.

Mayweather, it seems, will ask for a bigger share if and when negotiations for a Pacquiao fight begins. And Bob Arum of Top Rank will certainly look the other way in favor of Pacquiao.

Arum, a couple of months back, described Mayweather as “delusional” if the comebacking ex-pound-for-pound champion who beat a smaller Juan Manuel Marquez thinks he deserves more than Pacquiao.

Mayweather’s adviser, Frank Ellerbe, had hinted that they won’t take a 50-50 split.

“It seems like there’s a lot of things working against this fight ever happening,” Pacquiao’s chief trainer, Freddie Roach, told Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times yesterday.

“It makes sense. It’d be a great fight, but it seems there’s a lot of distractions around it. I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Roach.

While ticket sales for the Mayweather-Marquez fight weren’t as great, Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer and Team Mayweather, according to the LA Times, are looking at a million pay-per-view buys.

Something that would exceed the 900,000 buys for the Pacquiao-Ricky Hatton fight last May.

“Floyd will have all the leverage if that’s the number. Love him or hate him, he’s the biggest name in the sport, and the biggest revenue stream doesn’t come from the Philippines. The US is the capital of boxing, and Floyd Mayweather is the president of the capital,” Schaefer was quoted as saying.

“If Arum says 50-50 is fair, it probably isn’t,” Schaefer also said.           – Abac Cordero