PACQUIAO WATCH: What price is right?
By Edwin G. Espejo
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 19 Mar 2008
GOLDEN Boy Promotion?s Richard Schafer just raised the ante when he offered Manny Pacquiao a guaranteed $6 million purse for an immediate with Juan Manuel Marquez.
The offer goes beyond any weight limit.
It was perhaps a spur of the moment, knee-jerk reaction to the controversy that followed the close split decision awarded to Pacquiao against the dethroned Mexican champion, a stable of Golden Boy Promotion.
It was an offer very tempting to refuse.
But before anyone jumped into the fray, a due diligence of the gross receipts of the March 15 rematch between Pacquiao and Marquez should be taken.
Nothing yet has been reported on the number of pay per view (PPV) buys that were generated by the bout although initial reports suggest that the gate receipts alone came close to $2 million.
If the PPV buys hit the 450,000 mark, it will result to financial bonanza for both Pacquiao and Marquez who top billed the card. That would mean a PPV gross revenue of close to $22 million. Half of that will go to HBO. The other half will go to the promoters of the fight and the boxers, the bulk of which will accrue to the accounts of the main attraction.
Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach was quoted to saying the March 15 fight between his ward and Marquez earned for the Filipino boxing champ a cool $5.5 million. The breakdown and manner with which he came with that figure is not exactly clear. The contract signed by Pacquiao, however, was reportedly for a guaranteed $3 million purse. The more PPV buys and the more gate receipts, the bigger slice of the pie goes to Pacquiao who also earned for himself a substantial earning for the Philippine television rights (Solar Sports reportedly paid Pacquiao a whooping $800,000 for the Philippine television rights of his third bout with Erik Morales).
My last estimate is that if his rematch with Marquez hit the 450,000 buys, Pacquiao stood to receive as much as $7 in gross earnings for a 48 minute exchange of punishing punches with Marquez.
Schafer, an investment banker that he was before joining Oscar de la Hoya?s GBP, better put his offer in fine prints.
Pacquiao should not be denied a guaranteed purse lesser than what he will stand to earn for his March 15 rematch with Marquez plus an upside of the PPV revenues.
That figure could top the $10 million mark.
It would be an offer that the Pacquiao camp will be hard pressed to refuse.
For $6 million flat purse, Schafer should forget about a third bout.
Like in poker play, when Schafer raised the ante, Pacquiao could re-raise it and GBP?s financial adviser may fold if he is bluffing. Should he call the re-raise, I don?t see a third match not happening even if it would mean dropping a possible third fight for Pacquiao this year and foregoing possible crack at David Diaz? World Boxing Council lightweight crown.
Well, in the world of professional boxing, while some bouts will be personal, all of them are first and foremost for business.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Edwin G. Espejo.
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