Boxing’s newest diva, Manny Pacquiao, is apparently back on the 60-40 bandwagon, and Ricky Hatton’s people are ready to pull the plug on their potential May 2 matchup.

Pacquiao’s people are once again insisting that their fighter receive the bigger cut of the payday, despite the fact that the majority of the money that the fight makes will be coming from the wallets of Hatton fans.

The simple facts about this fight indicate that Hatton will be the bigger draw at the gate (he always is), and that the pay-per-views in England will likely outsell the pay-per-views from anywhere else, including the United States.

Hatton is the reason that Pacquiao stands to make a boat-load of money in this fight. Pacquiao alone has never proven to be a big seller. Hatton has. This is reason enough that Hatton not only deserves 50 percent, but he’s being quite generous in not insisting on more. He’s also being quite generous to include Pacquiao in the cut of British PPV money, something Floyd Mayweather received none dollars of.

Above all that, Hatton is the champ at 140, not Pacquiao. Pacquiao may insist that he holds the mythical title of pound-for-pound champion, but that means nothing. Roy Jones couldn’t sell a PPV, Mayweather couldn’t sell a PPV, and Pacquiao can’t sell a PPV. They all need help. You know who doesn’t need help selling PPVs? Ricky Hatton, Oscar De La Hoya, and Mike Tyson.

Pacquiao needs to take a few steps back and understand that he is the challenger here. He’s won two fights above 130 pounds — one against a hand picked titlist that promised to be more than a defenseless punching bag, and the other against the most out of shape fighter to step into the ring for a major fight I’ve ever seen. Pacquiao remains the most overrated fighter in boxing (as good as he is, he’s not as good as they tell you), and Hatton remains one of the most bankable stars in the sport.

From BoxingScene.com:

“We have the offer of another massive fight in the summer, in the British Isles, which would bring a crowd of 80,000 or more,” said Ray Hatton to The Telegraph. “We are extremely serious in our threat that we will pull the plug on Pacquiao and go for that alternative if that contract is not signed. We will not be messed around.”

Pacquiao’s promoter, Bob Arum, hopes that his fighter stops listening to the people around him and comes to his senses.

“We’ve all agreed to it, but now people are whispering in Pacquiao’s ear. There’s no way he’s getting 60–40. Unless he comes to his senses and people start acting intelligently … we’ll see if we can keep this together, but the split is supposed to be 50–50.”

At this point, I’d almost rather see the fight fall through. Hatton would go on to fight the winner of the Timothy Bradley – Kendall Holt fight (you know, like a champion does in his weight class), and Pacquiao would over-value himself out of several more fights before landing on the biggest name with no threat to him in the next weight class he fights in. I’m guessing he’d end up fighting somebody like a Zab Judah and make far less money than he would against Hatton.

The truth is, if this fight falls through, Hatton has options. Without Hatton, and with Mayweather still retired, Pacquiao has none. The ball is truly in Hatton’s court, and Pacquiao needs to learn that very quickly if he wants to get paid well and fight a meaningful fight. Otherwise, he gets neither.

Pacquiao and his people would be well advised to get themselves a Director of Mathematics, Fractions and Percentages to help them with the numbers part of the game, since clearly the crew that surrounds him now don’t know jack-shit about the business side of boxing.

Check back tomorrow for the next chapter of the Days of our Hatton-Pacquiao Negotiation…

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