After a day or two of demanding a 60-40 cut, the people in charge of Manny Pacquiao came to their senses and agreed to the deal that had been previously agreed to — a 50-50 split for his upcoming bout with Ricky Hatton.

After word got back to Hatton’s camp that Pacquiao’s people were demanding the bigger cut, Hatton’s legal team threatened to sue Pacquiao for backing out of the verbal agreement that was in place for a 50-50 split.

Bob Arum told the LA Times that a lot of the confusion and change of demands was due to Pacquiao’s people not being aware that they were also in line to receive a 50-50 cut of British pay-per-view money, something Floyd Mayweather did not get.

Arum said Hatton’s 2007 opponent, Floyd Mayweather Jr., didn’t receive any British television money, and when he explained that to Pacquiao’s attorney, Franklin Gacal, and the fighter’s American and Philippine advisors, “everybody is now calmed down.” Arum said he has received a thumbs-up from all three Pacquiao advisors to proceed for a 140-pound May 2 fight in Las Vegas that will match the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world against the charismatic Hatton, who has never lost at 140.

Arum also said that he expects to have signed contracts from both camps this week for the mega-fight. As of now, this is the only pay-per-view event scheduled for 2009.

In other boxing news, Vitali Klitschko is still pulling for a rematch with Lennox Lewis. Seriously? I like the Klitschkos and I thought Vitali was well on his way to winning that fight, but what’s done is done. It’s time for Vitali to move on. The only way to “beat” Lewis now is to become a more dominant heavyweight champion. Of course, with his brother out there, that will never happen. But seriously, it’s time to give this dream up.

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