General

Pacquiao-Hatton Is Off; Will Soon Be Back On

Jan 22, 2009, 4:02 PM UTC

â†µ
â†µYes, yes, the news came over the airwaves yesterday that Manny Pacquiao’s team over in Manila has categorically refused to accept a 52-48 split in their favor to fight Ricky Hatton and so the fight is absolutely, completely off and will never ever happen, ever.â†µâ†µFor those of you who are disappointed with this news, I say … just wait. In boxing, done deals and dead deals flip-flop like John Kerry on the stump. You may be aware that there is a very big fight in L.A. this Saturday night, Tony Margarito vs. Shane Mosley. This fight followed almost exactly the same negotiating trajectory as the Pacquiao-Hatton saga, not to mention that it involved the same faces on the promotional end, Top Rank (Margarito) and Golden Boy (Mosley).â†µ

â†µ

â†µIn that situation, the Margarito-Mosley fight was considered a done deal for weeks before Margarito, at the last second, refused to sign the final contract, saying that he felt he was a much bigger draw than Mosley and deserved a larger split of the purse. At that point, the jawing went back and forth for a few weeks before the news came down that the fight was categorically off and that Mosley had already found himself another opponent for the date, Andre Berto. â†µ

â†µâ†µIt was two days later, as I recall, that the fight was back on and the contracts were signed. HBO coughed up some nominal extra sum for Margarito so he could save face, and Bob Arum, Margarito’s promoter, had convinced him that it was the right thing to do for his career, which it most certainly was.â†µ

â†µâ†µNow, admittedly, this situation with Pacquiao has a more dire wrinkle when it comes to the “Bob Arum intervention” stage of the proceedings, because evidently Arum (also Pacquiao’s promoter) has been pleading with Manny for a while now to accept the 52-48 split to no avail. Yesterday, the Bobfather angrily told reporters that Pacquiao wouldn’t accept the terms and so as far as he is concerned the fight is now dead. He also added that a week ago he thought the chances of the fight going down the tubes were “zero percent.”â†µ

â†µâ†µIt is a bizarre turn of events, one in which Pacquiao seems to be cutting off his right glove to spite his left. He is guaranteed $12 million for this fight and 52% of what quite possibly would be a bigger PPV take than the massive numbers that he and Oscar De La Hoya generated in December. Barring the magical appearance of Floyd Mayweather on the scene, there is no fight out there for him that would make him even close to that kind of cheddar. And if the Floyd mega-fight does happen, well, he will make boocoo bucks too many, no doubt, but at the potential cost of losing, because, as Floyd proved demonstratively two years ago, he is a much better fighter than Hatton.â†µ

â†µâ†µThe really crazy thing is that with the amount of loot at stake for both sides, this negotiation has devolved into nothing more than a pissing contest. In actuality, they are three percentage points away from a deal -- Hatton has agreed to 52-48 and Pac Man wants 55-45. Also, keep in mind that this is not a debate over guaranteed money. This is just for a split of the various gates. â†µ

â†µâ†µThat’s why I think the fight is still going to happen. When this much money is on the table, the principals rarely walk away over peanuts and points of pride. It’s turned into a public contest of wills and some avenue is going to have to be pursued that will allow both men to save face when they sign the contracts (a la Arum and HBO’s solution to the Margarito-Mosley problem). But the fight just makes too much sense for both men for them to kill it over three percentage points of gate money. For Pacquiao, it’s simply a no-brainer, because it will be the most money he’s ever made in a fight and the general consensus is that Hatton will be a relatively easy victory for him. And on Hatton’s end … well, just consider this tidbit: In announcing yesterday that the fight was dead, Hatton’s team said they would now be pursuing fights against Mayweather and Juan Manuel Marquez. â†µ

â†µâ†µNow, it’s well known that Hatton wants a Mayweather rematch, but Marquez? Why on earth does Hatton suddenly want to fight JMM, a very tough opponent who is not in his weight class and has never proven to be a big draw at the box office? Could the reason be that Marquez is Pacquiao’s biggest rival in the sport who has been calling him out since their controversial fight last March? Could it actually be that Hatton has no interest at all in fighting Marquez but that he merely wants to piss Manny off? â†µ

â†µâ†µLike I said, this thing ain’t over by a longshot.â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

See More: