Clearing Up the Pacquiao-Hatton Situation

Search

Clearing Up the Pacquiao-Hatton Situation

Filed on January 22nd, 2009 in Boxing ⋅ ⋅

Now that the fight is officially off, there are no winners and two losers. The losers, of course, are boxing fans, who will miss out on arguably the best fight that can be made in all of boxing, and Manny Pacquiao, who passed on a career high payday because he didn’t feel the percentages were fair.

When this whole mess is sorted out and looked back on, I have a hard time thinking that anyone outside of the Philippines will think that Pacquiao made the right call. Pacquiao turned down a higher guaranteed payday than he earned against Oscar De La Hoya because he wanted more money. In the long run, this will hurt him far more than it will help him. He thinks that he will dictate terms of his fights, but wait until the phone stops ringing and let’s see how much he is being offered.

Let’s compare this to other situations. Pacquiao claims to be the pound-for-pound best in the world, and can therefore dictate his own terms, no matter what the circumstances or who the opponent is. But if we go back in time to just two years ago, and this exact situation came up with Floyd Mayweather, there would be one unified voice saying “Mayweather is ducking Hatton.”

Whether Pacquiao is “ducking” Hatton or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that the perception is that Pacquiao doesn’t want to fight him.

So why is Pacquiao doing this?

That’s a simple answer. Pacquiao’s belief in his own value and status in boxing is far greater than the public’s proven existence of his value. What this means is that Pacquiao believes (wrongly) that talent or success equals money. It doesn’t. Mike Tyson is not in the top 100 of current heavyweights, but if he made a comeback, he’s getting the big piece of the pie because he is the creator of revenues. He is the guy that drives pay-per-views and puts people in the arena. Pacquiao has not reached that level, and when you are fighting someone who is a bigger creator of revenue, the man who brings the money should get more of that money. Ricky Hatton is a man who brings money to the game.

When you talk about boxers who have historically done well financially, you are talking about only a handful of guys on the elite level. The super-elite are Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya and Evander Holyfield. After that there is a drop off, but Ricky Hatton is probably in the next group on the list. Manny Pacquiao, while having a huge fanbase, hasn’t shown that he generates the kind of revenue that Hatton does.

For this reason, Hatton is not only right to get 50 percent of the cut against Pacquiao, but he’s being generous by offering Pacquiao so much. Pacquiao has let his mythical pound-for-pound status go to his head, and he assumes that the whole world worships him like the Filipinos back home do.

Now, about Pacquiao’s claim to being the pound-for-pound king of boxing — I’ll leave that argument for another day. But I will say this: Hatton is no slouch, and if Pacquiao is going to insult him by demanding 60 percent based only on ring accomplishments, then Hatton needs to get a little more vocal.

Hatton is not the one that lost 19 of 24 rounds to Juan Manuel Marquez over two fights. He’s not the one that got beaten around the ring by Erik Morales. These, incidentally, are three of only four fights in Pacquiao’s career where he fought an elite fighter in their prime (Barrera I the other). Hatton also did not lose twice on his way up by knockout. Hatton has only been beaten one time, and it was by a true pound-for-pound great, and not in Hatton’s best weight class. Ask Kostya Tszyu if Hatton should be settling for 40 percent. Ask Paulie Malignaggi the same thing. Hatton is the king of 140 pounds, and if Manny wants to come challenge him, he needs to know his role.

Pacquiao must know that there is a reason that his own promoter, Bob Arum, and his own trainer, Freddie Roach, were begging him to take this deal. These are not men who are out to get Pacquiao, they are his biggest supporters. They know where he ranks, and they know how the business works. They also know that Hatton offering 50 percent and including the British pay-per-view revenues were a gift from the Hatton camp. Pacquiao just doesn’t understand the business of boxing, and this is going to hurt him badly if he doesn’t make an effort to learn it.

When Manny Pacquiao is refusing to take the phone calls of Freddie Roach and Bob Arum, you know he’s playing with the wrong information, and that he doesn’t want to know the truth. Right now, he is living in Mannyworld, and in Mannyworld, what he says is the truth, no matter who wrong it is.

In Mannyworld, 60 percent of $2 million is better than 50 percent of $40 million. He may claim to be the pound-for-pound king of boxing, but he’s certainly not pound-for-pound king of math.

UPDATE: Reports from the Philippines say that Pacquiao may have had his people to take the 52-48 offer after some reconsideration. Stay tuned…

Here’s a bunch of links from BoxingScene.com, who has provided fantastic coverage of the events, about the issue:

Mayweather-Pacquiao is Being Discussed By Both Sides
Roach May Fly Out To Manila To Speak With Pacquiao
Manny Pacquiao Responds To Team Hatton, Schaefer

Antonio Margarito, Manny Pacquiao Sizing Each Other Up
Golden Boy Defends Hatton, Responds To Pacquiao

Share this story...