Million-Dollar Manny: Pacquiao back to earning big bucks

MANILA, Philippines — Once one of the world’s highest-earning athletes, Manny Pacquiao had been out of the prizefighting business for a while.

That doesn’t mean he’s no longer capable of scoring a huge payday in the event he decides to return from a four-year-retirement.

Pacquiao did just that in challenging World Boxing Council Mario Barrios.

According to reports, the Filipino icon’s purse is at least $12 million (approximately P638 million) for the Barrios gig last Sunday (Manila time) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, a fight that ended in a majority draw.

Marca.com said Pacquiao’s total take home pay once the earnings from pay-per-view (PPV) sales kick could reach up to $18 million, or over a billion in Philippine pesos.

As of posting time, PPV earnings have not yet been released.

Barrios, for his part, reportedly earned between $500,000 to $1 million (P28 million to P57 million) in putting his title on the line against Pacquiao.

What’s even great for Pacquiao is that in proving he can still put on a show despite coming off a four-year retirement — over 13,000 fans attended his fight at the venue — he will inevitably be back for at least one more fight this year.

“December makes sense,” Sean Gibbons, president of MP Promotions and one of Pacquiao’s most trusted guys on the negotiating table, said from Las Vegas the day after the Barrios fight, when quizzed about Pacquiao's next bout.

Throughout his career, Pacquiao raked in millions from his boxing matches — many of those were on PPV. He even took home a whopping $150 million (over P8.5 billion in today’s conversion rate) in his megabuck duel with Floyd Mayweather Jr. 10 years ago — a fight that went down in the history books as the richest boxing bout ever.

Pacquiao simply isn’t done laughing his way to the bank yet.