I've suspected for a while that a big PPV between Bud and Manny was brewing, but with recent events I now believe it is LIKELY if not already signed.
- TC will announce the fight after beating Mean Machine on Dec 14. He has alluded to a big announcement coming.
- Mikey and Danny have been told they are not getting the Manny fight and have made other plans
- Great opportunity for PBC & Top Rank to promote their most popular fighters (sorry Errol) during the Fury/Wilder fight in Feb.
- TC/Arum know that they are in a tough spot with regards to getting big fights, so they should be willing to give Manny the split he needs to make big $. TC has been making $5M his last couple fights, which shouldn't be a problem with even a small slice of the PPV.
- This fight will draw a minimum of 1 million PPV buys and may get up to 2 million. Manny would get $20-30 million.
- TC/Top Rank are likely very confident that they can beat Manny. TC needs the WBA belt to set up another huge payday with Spence.
- This allows Spence to get a couple of tune-ups to recover from the crash before putting together the Crawford fight.
- Manny/Arum know each other well and can pull this off.
- This perfectly sets up a potential huge event in Spence/Crawford. And if Manny pulls an upset, that's an even better story. Even if Manny loses, he can always work to get another big payday with Floyd.