By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao’s lawyer says he won’t accept a 50-50 revenue sharing for the planned May 2 showdown with Britain ’s Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton and may look for another opponent.

In an interview on their arrival at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport aboard a Philippines Airline flight early Monday morning from Los Angeles, Gacal told Dyan Castillejo of ABS-CBN that they “will not agree to a 50-50 sharing “ as put forward by Top Rank promoter Bob Arum and Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer.

Gacal told Castillejo they are insisting on a 60-40 share in favor of Pacquiao whom they regard as the bigger draw since he is  the world’s No. pound-for-pound fighter and is coming off a spectacular 6th round demolition of Oscar De La Hoya in Las Vegas last December 6.

Gacal said that if the promoters and the Hatton camp don’t agree to the terms laid down by Pacquiao they would “find another opponent.”

He mentioned that former pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr was regarded as “a possible opponent.”

There had been earlier reports that Mayweather may be forced to come out of retirement because of tax problems while the Hatton people were also looking at a rematch with Mayweather in case the Pacquiao fight falls through.

Arum told us after a meeting some two weeks ago that the Pacquiao camp was happy with the figures he had put on the table although we are aware that from the very beginning that Pacquiao and some of his advisers believed he should command a higher percentage than Hatton.

However, as Arum has pointed out the numbers Hatton delivers in the pay-per-view buys in Britain have to be taken into consideration in discussing a revenue split.

BBC Sport recently quoted Hatton’s lawyer Gareth Williams as saying Mayweather had approached the Briton’s camp although he maintained “the fight we want to make, our preference, is Manny Pacquiao because that’s a great fight.”

Williams stressed that while they were more than happy to make the fight “it has got to be on acceptable terms” adding that they won’t be “bullied or forced into any decision that is not on our terms.”