By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Top Rank chairman and international promoter Bob Arum yesterday debunked claims by the camp of Ring Magazine featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao that Pacquiao was entitled to 40 percent of the upside from pay-per-view sales from his March 19 showdown with Erik "El Terrible" Morales and that promoter Murad Muhammad had stolen the money.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Manila Standard Today from his Las Vegas office, Arum said "it was the promoters obligation" to pay Erik (Morales) $2.5 million and Manny (Pacquiao) $1.75 million as guaranteed purse and nothing else. Arum said "people are mixing apples and oranges. This is nonsense."
Arum disclosed that "the deal was like any other deal where all the income goes to one pot and aside from our obligations to Morales and Pacquiao, we also had to pay for the undercard, spent over $1 million for advertising and promotion, travel and all kinds of items. The balance remains our prize." Arum revealed "our deal was I got 60 percent and Murad 40 percent. This is the promoters right. Nobody dreamed it would do as well as it did."
Arum said "we sold all tickets" to the MGM Grand Garden Arena and although we "projected 200,000 homes it could have gone the other way. The promoter takes the risks and there have been fights when PPV and gate don’t materialize and we take the loss. The fighters don’t refund us if we take a loss. Of course we were lucky. We rolled a seven. If we rolled snake eyes would they (the fighters) have given us back?"
Arum insisted that Morales "got nothing from pay-per-view" contrary to claims that he got 40 percent. He said "Erik never complained. Instead he thanked me because he understands." Arum said he would "love to do a double-header in September with Morales and Pacquiao on the same card against separate opponents and then, if they win, a rematch in December." However, Arum indicated he "told Shelly Finkel and Murad Muhammad that if they can’t resolve everything, Morales won’t fight Pacquiao" hinting that neither will the other big-name Mexicans.
The lead promoter in the March 19 fight who handles Morales claimed that Morales was "the bigger attraction" and was "doing very good results" on PPV. At the same time he said "Manny never got a purse like this in his life." Arum stressed "there is no question about it, the Mexicans are the biggest supporters." He pointed to the upcoming fight of the legendary Julio Cesar Chavez "whose best days are gone but we will still get 100 percent business from the hispanics. We’ll be sold out and on PPV get 200,000. I am loyal to the Latinos that’s how I am able to survive. Obviously I do 90 percent of my business with them although I have other fighters."
Arum clarified that the PPV money "takes two to three months to come in." HBO PPV guru Mark Taffet earlier said the HBO deal was with Bob Arum and Top Rank and not with Murad Muhammad and that he knew of no deal where the fighters were to get a percentage of PPV income. Arum also cited the first Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight when promoter Jerry Perrenchio paid them $2.5 each and people said 'you gotta be crazy.' Arum said they got $18 million and nobody complained. "That's business. That's capitalism. People talk and write but they don't know s--t. They write crap."
Pacquiao was scheduled to leave for Los Angeles late last night in order to reportedly resolve the pay-per-view issue as well as the alleged non-payment of taxes due on previous fights.