“Mayweather fight not about the payday” Pacquiao’s manager says. Willing to take pay cut for fight
Manny Pacquiao is the first and only eight-division world boxing champion, in which he has won 10 world titles, as well as the first to win the lineal championship in four different weight classes. According to Forbes, he was the 14th highest paid athlete in the world as of 2013. So when the issue of putting up more money for what is possibly the best boxing match that never happened, Pacquiao’s manager said it really is not about the money anymore.
Pacquiao is open to taking a smaller purse in a dream match-up with undefeated American Floyd Mayweather, the Philippines boxing hero’s business manager said Tuesday to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter..
“The talks are already going on. It is more of what the fans want. It’s not about the pay (level). That’s the least of his concerns,” Pacquiao’s business manager Eric Pineda told AFP.
Pineda declined to discuss the amounts of money involved, but in 2012 there was speculation that a fight between the two could lead to the first $200 million purse in boxing history.
Pacquiao defeated Chris Algieri, another once-undefeated American boxer, in Macau on Sunday in a successful defence of his World Boxing Organization crown before throwing down the gauntlet to Mayweather, saying “It’s been a long time since I’ve been wanting this fight, it has to happen”.
Sunday’s fight saw Pacquiao, one of the world’s richest sportsmen, knock down Algieri six times, convincing fans that the Filipino, who turns 36 next month, remains in shape to face Mayweather, 37.
Mayweather potentially has more to lose in a fight against Pacquiao. He has a perfect 47-0 record and has won world titles at five different weights, but a defeat at the Filipino’s hands could blot that streak.
The two were long-time rivals as the “best pound-for-pound” boxer of their generation, but the dream fight has never materialised to the disappointment of the boxing world.
Mayweather, the world’s light middleweight champion, has previously demanded a bigger share of the fight purse as a condition for agreeing to any fight with Pacquiao.
Other conditions, including a blood test, have delayed any fight between the two despite anticipation of a huge payday for such a match.
