An on-again-off-again negotiation that had Pacquiao walking away from negotiations because he was unhappy with the short end of a 70/30 split ends with the announcement that the fight is on. For the betting fan, the Vegas sports books have opened with De La Hoya favored at 8-5. That number won't last long, according to Top Rank's Bob Arum.
"Wait until the Filipino money starts coming in."
The buzz around this fight centers on the disparity in size between the two fighters. De La Hoya has campaigned as high as 160 (though with limited success) and hasn't fought below 151 in several years, while Pacquiao only recently moved up to 135 to snatch a title belt from David Diaz. But it's the comment of De La Hoya's one-time trainer (literally one-time, against Floyd Mayweather Jr.) Freddie Roach made, saying that De La Hoya can't "pull the trigger" that De La Hoya says really stirred him up.
"When Freddie Roach said that Manny would knock me out, that I can't pull the trigger, I saw that as a challenge. That motivated me"
In De La Hoya's last fight, which was supposed to be a tune-up for a rematch with the since retired Mayweather, the GoldenBoy dominated the scorecards but had his bell rung alarmingly often for a 35-year-old who was kicking around the idea of fighting the pound for pound best fighter in the world. Interestingly, now that Mayweather has hung up his gloves, Pacquiao is generally considered the P4P king.
" I have to worry about his speed, and not just that, he's a southpaw and I haven't done too well against southpaws." An alarming admission from the Golden One.
Pacquiao will doubtless bring in big Pay Per View numbers from his Filipino fans as well as help to fill the MGM Grand to overflowing. Every Pacquiao fight brings the Filipino faithful who are unerringly charming and enthusiastic for Pacquiao and willing to spread the love around to Roach too. Roach looked like a rock star as he was mobbed by Pacquiao fans after the Juan Manuel Marquez rematch.
So how much is Pacquiao getting for this fight? Arum wouldn't say.
"Manny asked me not to discuss numbers or percentages. I'm not going to talk about that."
In truth, even a 30% share for Pacquiao is more than he could make in a winner-take-all against virtually anyone else in the sport. The PPV numbers should be huge, with over one million buys being very likely.
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