MANILA, Philippines - No easy fight. No easy money.
Yes, Manny Pacquiao stands to earn no less than $15 million for his next fight, but like the previous ones, nothing comes on a silver platter.
His chief-of-staff, Atty. Franklin Gacal, yesterday said Pacquiao will get no less than $15 million (P660 million) for his May 7 showdown with Shane Mosley.
“But it’s not going to be easy,” said Gacal, who also expects the pay-per-view sales for the welterweight clash to easily exceed the one million mark.If it does, then Pacquiao’s earnings, aside from the guaranteed purse, would break $20 million, just like in his November bout with Antonio Margarito in Dallas.
“No lower than $15 million,” said Gacal when asked how much Pacquiao could make for this one.
In his last five fights, Pacquiao has made $68 million on paper. For the Oscar dela Hoya fight it was $15 million guaranteed, Ricky Hatton ($13 million), Miguel Cotto ($13 million), Joshua Clottey ($12 million) and Margarito ($15 million).
He has averaged a million PPV buys in these fights as well, doing 1.25 million for Dela Hoya, 850,000 for Hatton, 1.25 million for Cotto, 700,000 for Clottey and 1.15 million for Margarito.
Pacquiao is fresh from a long family vacation that took them to Boracay, Japan and Australia over the last two weeks.Pacquiao has held on to his final decision on the Mosley fight, but Gacal said “everything’s okay now” even if the fight contract hasn’t been signed yet.
Pacquiao said while experts insist there are better fights out there than Mosley, this one won’t be easy.
There’s even been a call to boycott the May 7 fight.
“There is never an easy fight. Every time I step into the ring, I risk my life and my future. I had to find ways to negate the advantages in size of Diaz, Dela Hoya, Hatton, Cotto, Clottey and Margarito,” he wrote in his philboxing.com column yesterday.
“I have stepped up to face men easily bigger and taller than me. To say that every fighter I face in the ring does not deserve attention talks about ignorance. How can a fight be easy when I have been working my hardest efforts every single time?
“I am no Superman. When I get hit, I pretend I did not get hurt so as to frustrate my opponent. That’s part of the sacrifice! Funny, these same writers who ask for a boycott almost always cover my fights, anyway,” Pacquiao wrote.
Source: philstar.com
