By Steve Kim
This much is clear, it looks like eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao will be returning to the ring on either October 29th or November 5th. What's not so clear is just who will be his dance partner.
Recently, Adrien Broner turned down a chance to fight Pacquiao in the fall. He reportedly turned down a purse of around $4 million plus pay-per-view upside (if there was a certain amount of buys).
Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum, who promotes 'the Pac Man,' says these offers are in line with what past B-sides received.
"Yeah, they all have pay-per-view upside,"he explained on Monday morning at the Fortune Gym in Hollywood, where it a media day was held for Terence Crawford, who faces Viktor Postol on Saturday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
"Y'know, if the guy says,'I'm getting too little because I can really bring in a big number at the box-office.' We say,'Fine, that's OK, that's legitimate. If you do you'll be compensated on the upside but don't ask us to guarantee what your fantasy is on what you can do.'"
According to the veteran promoter Pacquiao is no longer guaranteed $20 million like he has been in the past.
"Manny understands that the time when we guaranteed him $20 million for a fight - because it was always there - is no longer the case. So we're talking about a guarantee of far, far less."
There was a time when Pacquiao events routinely did over a million buys, but those days are in the rear view mirror (save for the fight with Floyd Mayweather last May).
Arum explained,"We've had a negotiation where we reduced our percentage and in turn he's been very reasonable with us on the guarantee."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.
