MANILA, Philippines - Promoters for pound-for-pound superstars Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. voiced out varying proposals as to how the revenue should be split, if and when the megabuck fight the world wants to see would eventually materialize.
Fielding the question about the division of the pie during the new HBO series “The Fight Game with Jim Lampley,” Top Rank boss Bob Arum suggested a 45-45 share, with the remaining 10 percent going to the winner.
In a separate portion of the show, Golden Boy Promotions Richard Schaefer suggested to let auditors check and compare the two boxers’ previous PPV performances to determine which is the bigger draw, and therefore deserving of the chunkier slice.
“Manny Pacquiao has now taken the position, which I endorse, if Floyd Mayweather thinks that he is the greatest fighter of all time, let’s do it 45 percent to Mayweather, 45 percent to Pacquiao, and 10 percent to the winner,” Arum said.
“But we got to have parity here. If Mayweather really believes he can beat Pacquiao, which I don’t think he believes, he’ll pick up more than 50 percent that way. But it’s up to Floyd,” he added.
Schaefer believes Mayweather is the true moneymaker between the two but batted for a formal auditing to see the real numbers.
“I think (Floyd) should get the lion’s share. I think fair is fair. I think what we should do is have one of the big three accounting firms account the last fights going back to, let’s say, 2007, since we’ve been involved with Floyd Mayweather. Account the pay-per-view numbers, account the live gates. Accumulate all of these numbers, we can do the same with Pacquiao, and then we can see what kind of ratio it is,” he said.
“If in fact they’re the same, they produce the same amount of pay-per-views, the same amount of live gate revenues, then you know what? Yes, it should be a 50-50 split. But if they don’t, why should it?” he added.
Of course, there are issues other than the purse split that both parties would have to settle, like drug test.
Pacquiao is set to defend his WBO welterweight title against undefeated American Timothy Bradley on June 9. Mayweather, who beat Miguel Cotto for the WBA super-welterweight belt recently, is supposed to enter a county jail by June for a three-month sentence following a domestic violence case.