By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, lawyer Keith Kizer, has set the record straight in terms of the fight purses of pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao in his last three fights including last Saturday’s “Fire Power” showdown with WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto.
Kizer informed BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that Pacquiao’s guaranteed purse for the Cotto fight was $7.5 million while Cotto’s purse was something like $4 million in the wake of conflicting reports on the Filipino's guaranteed purse..
What this means is that if the net revenues from pay-per-view income which means after all deductions for distribution, marketing and other expenses is more than the combined guaranteed purses of both fighters, then the two fighters split the difference based on the agreed percentages in the contract regarding PPV income.
With Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s estimate of pay-per-view numbers at anywhere between 1.2 to 1.5 million then it would mean PPV gross revenues of anywhere between $60 to $75 million.
However, the fighters will be entitled to a share of the income only after all expenses are deducted and the sharing will be based on the split agreed upon in the fight contracts.
When Pacquiao fought Erik “El Terrible” Morales for the first time he was paid a guaranteed purse of $1.75 million by Arum and his promotional partner for that fight, Murad Muhammad and was not entitled to a share of the pay-per-view income, neither was Morales.
It created a bitter rift between Pacquiao and Murad and ended with a legal battle during which Murad was forced to move out but although Pacquiao claimed his new m,management team headed by Shelly Finkel would get him a couple of million dollars from the PPV income, it didn’t happen.
Kizer also told us that Pacquiao’s guarantees for the Oscar De La Hoya fight was $6.6 million and for the fight against Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton $7.4 million.
