By Ronnie Nathanielsz
The eagerly-awaited megabuck showdown between Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao and Britain ’s Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton is getting close to being done after a period of back-and-forth negotiations on the revenue split appeared to mopve forward.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum had initially made a verbal commitment with the handlers of Hatton on a 50-50 split but Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin “Jeng” Gacal on his return with Pacquiao from the US last January 12 said Pacquiao wanted a 60-40 split or the fight was off.
That brought about a period of intense negotiations with both sides standing firm on the original 50-50 split. However Arum, in an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports last Friday sensed a possible breakthrough insisting “We will find a solution. That is my promise to you.
Stating that in this type of negotiations it was more ego than money, Arum said “it takes time to massage everybody and get it done” but was confident he could have a deal in place by Monday, Las Vegas time.
The British newspaper the Sun reported on Sunday that the fight “appears to have been saved” by Arum who said “This thing is going to happen. Earlier in the week it was in disarray. Now its back in order.”
In a long distance conversation from Cebu, Pacquiao told us that the Hatton camp had “changed the 50-50 to 48-52 or 45-55” and that he would discuss the details with his lawyer Franklin “Jeng” Gacal before making a decision.
Made aware that Hatton’s fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr in December 2007 shattered the pay-per-view record of the Lennox Lewis – Mike Tyson heavyweight title fight in 2002 of 750,000 buys with over one million buys with revenues of $41 million, Pacquiao indicated he knew that which is why the British PPV revenues were included in the pot.
Pacquiao said he plans to return to Los Angeles on the 23rd and is expected to accompany his charming wife Jinkee and their newborn baby girl, Queen Elizabeth back home later this month.
It seemed to be a different story early Sunday morning when Ray Hatton recalled that at the beginning of the negotiations for the fight the Briton’s camp had said “you keep the Philippine money, we’ll keep the English money and we’ll split on the American money but that was not acceptable. They wanted attonthe English and European money to go in so obviously we said if that’s what it is, we’ll go 50-50.”
Hatton repeated the claim that “at that moment in time everybody accepted it because it would probably earn Manny more money than he earned for the Oscar (De La Hoya) fight.
He noted that then “all of a sudden Manny goes home to the Philippines and things change.”
Nate Campbell had expressed readiness to move up in weight to fight Hatton if the Pacquiao fight doesn’t push through prompting Ray Hatton to remark that aside from Campbell “there are probably half-a-dozen others want to fight Ricky and we can have a massive fight over here which would be good for us financially.”
Hatton said that if the Pacquiao fight doesn’t take place “it’s a shame because it’s a good fight for Manny. Ricky has a style that will suit Manny and it will be a great fight. I think the Philippine media appreciates the fact.”
Ray Hatton stressed “we do hope for the best. Its crazy the statements being bandied about Manny fighting Mayweather” pointing out that “even assuming Mayweather agrees to a 50-50 split there would be no English money” even as he downplayed the amount of money that can be earned in the Philippines on pay-per-view and free TV.
