By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Astute Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is confident he will find a solution to the impasse over the revenue split in the scheduled May 2 Las Vegas showdown between Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and Britain’s Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton.
In an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Arum said “We will find a solution. That is my promise to you.”
Arum explained that “when we are involved in this type of a situation it very, very frankly becomes more ego than money. It takes time to massage everybody and get it done. But if I were a betting man I would say it will happen before the end of this weekend.”
Arum said he couldn’t put a timetable on it exactly “because obviously I am interested in getting something done whenever I can get it done. But I don’t want to put myself under any kind of needless pressure by achieving a timetable. I am really confident that as far as Manny is concerned this will absolutely guarantee his biggest purse ever and nobody is throwing away this kind of money on nonsense.”
Arum pointed out that Hatton brings to the game “something that no other fighter in the world brings and that’s a shipload of money from English television.” He noted that “wise guy Floyd Mayweather Jr pushed and pushed and pushed and got a 60-40 deal and gave up the English television rights sacrificed his share of $18 million.
He said that while everybody in the Philippines were making statements which he felt didn’t help, “fortunately the Hatton people have been very reserved and (Richard) Schaefer has calmed them down.”
Arum expressed confidence that “with a little bit more patience, a little more time and we’re going to get it resolved.”
Trainer Freddie Roach told us he feels Pacquiao “deserves the money because he beat Oscar (De La Hoya) and I can’t complain about his 60-40 demand.” However, Roach added, “I’d hate to lose this fight because it is a very good fight for Manny style-wise.
Roach noted that if Pacquiao doesn’t fight Hatton “there are not too many guys he can fight and he won’t get this kind of money with any other guy.” He said he was hopeful they could “meet in the middle somewhere” like they did in the negotiations for the De La Hoya fight in which an original 70-30 deal in favor of “The Golden Boy” was changed to 68-32. Roach said “someone has to give in somewhere” adding “hopefully I can talk to Manny” stressing that “there is nothing bigger than this fight.”
Pacquiao in a text message to Dyan Castillejo of ABS-CBN left a window of opportunity for compromise, saying he would give the Hatton people time until February to see whether they will come up with something new.
The camp of the IBO junior welterweight champion however refuses to make any more concessions.Hatton’s father, Ray Hatton, in an overseas telephone conversation Thursday night, Manila Time, with insidesports, Standard Today and Viva Sports said they had made concessions on the venue as well as the fight date and “we cannot obviously make any more concessions. No. No. We don’t have to.”
Ray Hatton said “at the end of the day Manny may probably be the one that will regret it.”
Pacquiao’s tacit message to the Hatton handlders that if they won’t give in the fight will not happen and they (Hatton’s camp) will have to find another opponent met with a response from Ray Hatton who indicated that ’s exactly what they’ve done. He said “we have an offer for a fight in England in the summer and a date has been proposed towards the end of May and it’ll be before 80,000 people.”
However, Hatton declined to give any additional details saying “I cannot tell you since it would be very unfair because if the Manny Pacquiao thing gets resolved these people are going to be very embarrassed and we don’t want to embarrass anybody.”
Hatton’s father remarked that “if he (Pacquiao) is sticking to his demands then I think he is a very, very silly person because I don’t think he realizes what England and Europe are going to bring to the table” in terms of pay-per-view television income. He added, “no disrespect to the Philippines but consider the amount of money from England and Europe. At the end of the day if he wants to be silly, its unfortunate.”
Hatton said it would be “a shame if the fight doesn’t take place because everybody in the world knows what a fight between Ricky and Manny is going to be.”
Hatton’s father played down talk of Floyd Mayweather Jr coming out of retirement to fight Pacquiao if the Hatton fight falls through saying there would be no English or European money for that fight and “you’ll have a smaller pot.”
At the same time he doubted very much whether Mayweather will settle “for anything less than 50-50. Floyd will probably come back and say ‘no I’m the man. You (Manny) are the man because I let you be the man. I want 60-40 in my favor.”
He also played down the attractiveness of a Mayweather Jr fight saying “he is a tactical genius which might not suit Manny’s style. It may be all one way and that’s the worst thing that can happen. On the night of the fight he (Mayweather) will be bigger than Oscar (De La Hoya) because he won’t make the same mistakes that Oscar did.”
While Hatton said it was Pacquiao’s “prerogative” not to agree to a 50-50 split , he criticized his so-called advisers whom he accused of being “out for their own gain and not advising Manny for his reputation as well as financial gain.”
He argued that by backing out of the Hatton fight on terms that were earlier agreed upon “it could cause problems for him down the line when he wants to deal with anybody else in the future.”
