Pacquiao-Hatton fight is dead

[SHARKINFESTED]

Pacquiao-Hatton fight is deadPosted January 21st 2009 at 12:20pm
By Michael RosenthalBuzz up!
The proposed fight between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton, targeted for May 2 in Las Vegas, is officially off.

Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter, said Pacquiao failed to meet a deadline imposed by Hatton to have the deal signed and both fighters have decided to go their separate ways. Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, Hatton’s promoter, said the same thing.

The parties initially agreed to a 50-50 split of the purse, several sources said, but Pacquiao later demanded a 60-40 split and then rejected a compromise offer.

“Pacquaio wouldn’t accept the terms,” Arum said. “(Hatton’s promoter) Richard (Schaefer) and (Ricky) Hatton imposed a deadline, I tried to get them to sign a contract, Manny declined, the deadline came and went, the fight was called off.

“Simple as that.”

Arum, obviously frustrated throughout the negotiations, took a matter-of-fact approach on Wednesday.

“I don’t have any criticism for anybody,” he said. “Manny felt the deal should be one way, Hatton felt it should be another way. I tried to come up with what I thought was a good compromise and it was rejected.

“It left us without a fight, but there’s no one to blame here. … I think most of Manny’s people wanted him to accept the compromise. He decided not to. It’s his life, his career.

“He didn’t violate any contracts,” Arum went on. “Hatton didn’t violate any obligations to anyone. Everyone acted in a business-like manner.”

So what’s next?

Arum said he would like to meet with Pacquiao and his trainer, Freddie Roach, next week either in Los Angeles or in the Philippines to discuss possible opponents.

Roach, who guided Pacquiao to his knockout of Oscar De La Hoya on Dec. 6, apparently was shut out of the negotiations for the Hatton fight. He repeatedly tried to reach Pacquiao in the Philippines during the talks but was unsuccessful.

“I want Freddie at the meeting,” Arum said. “… Freddie was excluded for whatever reason from Manny’s group in negotiations. Freddie has played a tremendous role in (Pacquiao’s) career. He’s always been a voice of sanity and reason.

“He should be involved in any discussion about future moves in Manny’s career.”

The most-intriguing potential opponent for Pacquiao is Floyd Mayweather Jr., who is retired for the moment. Other than that, the possibilities are wide open, but no other match up would approach a Hatton or Mayweather fight in scope.

Meanwhile, Schaefer remained disgusted with Pacquiao but is looking forward.

“Hatton’s really pissed off,” Schaefer said. “We wasted a lot of time. I’m having lunch with Bob (Arum on Wednesday). He’s as frustrated as I am, but life goes on. … We had (an oral) deal at 50-50. Pacquiao changed his mind. He has a history of agreeing to deals and then changing his mind.

“You can’t really blame his lawyer Franklin Gacal. Ultimately, it’s Manny’s decision.”

Hatton has instructed Schaefer to begin negotiations with Mayweather for a rematch of their 2007 fight – won by Mayweather – or go after the winner of the Feb. 28 Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz fight.

Schaefer also said Hatton wants to know whether De La Hoya might be interested in fighting him in England should De La Hoya decide to continue fighting.

 

[SHARKINFESTED]

Pacquiao-Hatton collapse spoils strong start in '09

Boxing was off to such a good start this year.

Why couldn’t Manny Pacquiao just accept the money that was on the table for his proposed May 2 showdown with Ricky Hatton?

With a guaranteed $12 million and a piece of the pay-per-view revenue that would have easily netted him $20 million when it was all said and done, Pacquiao and his advisors in the Philippines should not have been playing games earlier this week.

With the Andre Berto-Luis Collazo barnburner already in the books, another welterweight war on tap for this Saturday and more quality fights like next month’s Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz lightweight clash coming up, the first quarter of ’09 still looks pretty good.

But with Hatton-Pacquiao to look forward to in May, the ’09 boxing schedule was almost too good to be true. Now that the junior welterweight championship has been called off, the sport loses what was the only bona fide super fight of ’09 and fight fans suffer their first major letdown of the new year.

Pacquiao’s refusal to accept the terms of the Hatton deal is baffling, especially when one considers that he was only guaranteed about half as much ($6.6 million) to face Oscar De La Hoya in December.

Some in the industry have wondered whether there were other factors in the stalled negotiations, such as Showtime’s serious interest in the fight, but Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum says that had nothing to do with the deal not getting done.

“Richard (Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions, Hatton’s U.S. promoter) and I saw eye to eye on the terms of the deal,” Arum said. “We had gotten to a 52-48 split (favoring Pacquiao) plus the $12 million (guarantee). We met with both HBO and Showtime about distributing the fight, but no decision had been made as to what network would televise the fight in the U.S. It never got to that point.”

And that’s a damn shame.

Beyond the money both fighters would have collected, the fight made so much sense.

For Hatton, Pacquiao represented the highest-profile fighter not named De La Hoya or Floyd Mayweather, a potentially winnable fight and a style that would have likely complimented his and made for an entertaining outing.

For Pacquiao, Hatton represented a measuring stick as to how good he truly is above lightweight, plus an opportunity to win world championship recognition in a sixth weight class (yes, I said sixth; his 2003 victory over Marco Antonio Barrera was the for the linear featherweight title).

And the fight would have had tremendous international appeal as Hatton and Pacquiao have arguably the largest and most loyal fan bases in the sport.

The only difference is that Hatton’s fans in Britain have more spending power than Pacquiao’s followers in the Philippines, which is why the Manchester native’s team did not want to back off the original offer to split revenue 50-50.

There’s no doubt Pacquiao is the more accomplished of the two fighters, and the better boxer pound-for-pound, but that doesn’t mean the Filipino icon deserves a bigger cut than Hatton.

Both Mayweather and Pacquiao were better fighters than De La Hoya at the time they fought the Golden Boy, but both had to settle for lesser cuts of the revenue for those fights and we all know why. De La Hoya didn’t just bring in fans, he brought in the money. Hatton is second only to De La Hoya in terms of his earning power.

The Mayweather-Hatton fight did 850,000 pay-per-view buys in the U.S., but it broke Sky Box Office pay-per-view records in the UK, attracting between 1.2 and 1.4 million buys (and earning the Hitman between 15 and 20 million Pounds, which translated to more cash than ‘Money May’ took in considering the conversion rate at the time).

By contrast, most Pacquiao fights are on commercial television in the Philippines. His fights can be seen live without lengthy commercial interruptions at closed circuit locations, but the revenue those theaters bring in pale in comparison to Hatton’s pay-per-view numbers in Britain.

“The Philippines is an emerging nation. Their wealth is not as vast as Europe, from a purely monetary point of view,” said Schaefer, who believes that Hatton not only brings in more money than Pacquiao but may have more fans.

“What is (the) criteria to gauge that? How many people do you bring out? How many people will watch in your home country? It’s difficult to say. If you balance everything out, though, I don’t think any fighter in the world gets the kind of support Ricky Hatton does. I was there when 58,000 people watched him fight in Manchester City (England, versus Juan Lazcano last May). It was absolutely unbelievable. Ricky Hatton has the largest fan support of any fighter in the world.”

Hatton will use that fan support as leverage to land another high-profile opponent for the May 2 date, the biggest name being Mayweather, who Pacquiao would also like to lure out of retirement in a showdown of No. 1 pound-for-pound kings.

Mayweather-Pacquiao is obviously a bigger event in the U.S. than Mayweather-Hatton II, but the rematch would probably still do big numbers in the UK. And given the Mayweather’s history of taking “safe” fights, plus his acrimonious relationship with Arum, he would probably lean toward Hatton.

(And who knows? The good folks at HBO Sports might believe Mayweather-Hatton II is worth the investment with the story angle of the Englishman being trained by Floyd Mayweather Sr. and the potential trash-talk triangle between Floyd Jr., Senior and Roger that could be exploited by another ‘24/7’ series to help move pay-per-view buys in the States. This writer has to fight off waves of nausea at the mere thought of it. The first African-American president of the United States was just sworn in this week; let’s not taint the soaring black image with more televised Mayweather family dysfunction.)

The fact that both Marquez and Diaz are promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, which deals with Hatton’s U.S. affairs, doesn’t bode well for Pacquiao getting the winner of their Feb. 28 clash for THE RING world lightweight title.

So who does that leave for Pacquiao?

Edwin Valero?

Urbano Antillon?

Humberto Soto?

Pacquiao wouldn’t clear more than $2 million for any of those fights.

“You tell me,” Arum said when asked about his fighter’s options. “I don’t think Pacquiao and his advisors had a plan B when they rejected the Hatton offer.”

What about the favorite in this Saturday’s welterweight clash, Antonio Margarito?

The WBA 147-pound titlist, who is set to defend his belt against Shane Mosley, would be the most dangerous fighter Pacquiao has ever faced, but at least the Mexican mauler has name recognition.

“He’s become a huge attraction,” said Arum, who’s ecstatic over the certain sellout Margarito-Mosley produced at L.A.’s Staples Center. “I never envisioned Margarito would be this popular, even after the Cotto fight. I was in Mexico last month and everyone asked me about Margarito and his plans for this year. They told me the fight they want to see him take more than any other would be against Pacquiao. I guess it’s the revenge factor.”

Keep dreamin’, Bob.

Then again, with the advice Pacquiao’s been getting lately, maybe you and Margarito will get lucky.

GYM NOTES

Margarito’s gym wars are legendary in the Southern California area. The bigger and tougher his sparring partners are, the bigger the hurt he usually puts on them.

Rashad Holloway, a 9-1 junior middleweight prospect who served as Manny Pacquiao’s chief sparring partner for De La Hoya, was sent home with a busted eye socket after a particularly rough session with Margarito at the Mexican mauler’s gym in Montebello, Calif., ruining a scheduled Jan. 31 bout for the talented North Carolina resident.

However, the little guys Margarito worked with during this camp have given him quality rounds. Some, like junior welterweights Said El-Harrak and Henry Mitchell, even had their moments against the big, relentless welterweight despite their lack of size and experience.

During one sparring session two Saturday’s ago, El-Harrak used his quick hands and lateral movement to evade almost all of the looping punches Margarito lobbed his way during their first round. The 21-year-old Brit who now makes his home in Las Vegas, where he is trained by Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, also landed well-timed right hands against Margarito, who stayed on top of the youth but ate constant jabs and occasional hooks every step of the way.

El-Harrak’s record is 3-0 (one KO) but he looked like a veteran of 30 fights against Margarito as he easily blocked, countered and stepped around his forward-marching antagonist in rounds two and three.

However, Margarito also began to catch and parry El-Harrak’s jabs in the third as he backed the gutsy young man to the ropes. In rounds four and five, Margarito quickly closed the gap between them, aggressively cornered El-Harrak and swarmed the smaller fighter with blunt right crosses, hooks and uppercuts after the boxer of Moroccan descent nailed him with hard body shot at the start of the fourth.

To his credit, El-Harrak still managed to sneak quick right hands down the pike as the Tijuana Tornado picked up velocity, but by the fifth round he was more concerned with holding, blocking shots and maneuvering away from Margarito’s high-volume attack than landing his share of shots.

Still, if the sparring rounds were scored like a professional boxing match, El-Harrak probably won three out of the five. However, he didn’t feel like a winner when he left the ring.

“I’ve been in camp for three weeks but this is the first time I’ve had a mark on my face,” said El-Harrak, who sported a scuffed shiner around his right eye. “It’s not as easy as it looks to box this guy.

“He’s going to beat Shane. That’s for sure. Mosley will be competitive. He’s always competitive, but around the eighth round I think he’s going to have that confused look on his face that he gets when things don’t go his way. That’s what Margarito does to fighters.”

 

[FATAL NYGHTMARE]

What the fuck is Hatton whining about? If Pacquiao wants 60-40 and Hatton really wants to fight him, then give Pacquiao the 60-40 split. Hatton's bitch ass doesn't deserve a 50-50 split when Pacquiao is the main attraction to begin with. On top of that, Hatton would get his ass knocked out anyway.

Pacquiao may have verbally agreed to a 50-50 split, but then somebody probably got in his head and told him he should be making more than Hatton. And it's true. It's not just the fans in the Philippines that support Pacquiao, he has a monster following here in the United States as well. The same cannot be said about Hatton so the 2nd article about Hatton generating more revenue is bullshit.

If this clown really wants this to go down, give the superstar the bigger split. Pacquiao is the reason most people outside of Britain will be watching this fight.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Never say never in boxing. I still think this fight happens eventually.

However I posted an article in the boxing thread that Pacquiao/Floyd Mayweather jr. talks have officially begun. So I'm sure a fight with Mayweather would be much, much more appealing then a fight with Ricky Hatton. Pacquiao is also considering Margarito as a possible opponent later in the year.

 

[MOREBASS]

This fight will happen.

Pacquiao is guaranteed 12 million. Ricky is guaranteed 4 million.


With the shared revenue, Pacquiao is looking at around 20 million for this fight.

His 'advisors' would be foolish not to take this fight, as they would only make about 10% of this fighting just about anyone else.

This fight is too big not to happen.

Take the 52-48 split on the shared revenue.

 

[45park1904]

What the fuck is Hatton whining about? If Pacquiao wants 60-40 and Hatton really wants to fight him, then give Pacquiao the 60-40 split. Hatton's bitch ass doesn't deserve a 50-50 split when Pacquiao is the main attraction to begin with. On top of that, Hatton would get his ass knocked out anyway.

Pacquiao may have verbally agreed to a 50-50 split, but then somebody probably got in his head and told him he should be making more than Hatton. And it's true. It's not just the fans in the Philippines that support Pacquiao, he has a monster following here in the United States as well. The same cannot be said about Hatton so the 2nd article about Hatton generating more revenue is bullshit.

If this clown really wants this to go down, give the superstar the bigger split. Pacquiao is the reason most people outside of Britain will be watching this fight.

EXACTLY

 

[WayCide-Ridah]

this is why boxing is dying is becuz boxers, promoters, and managers always get into somebodies business...hey if manny doesn't wanna fight then, ok, move the fucc on....same for hatton...I Am not a fan of boxing these days, it's slowly dying and the boxers ain't helping.

Make the best fight the best, fucc all the mandatory title defenses...have the champ fight the number 1 contender...that would be Manny V.S. Floyd jr...if he stays retired...than have manny v.s. hatton, simple as that

 

[2-0-Sixx]

this is why boxing is dying is becuz boxers, promoters, and managers always get into somebodies business...hey if manny doesn't wanna fight then, ok, move the fucc on....same for hatton...I Am not a fan of boxing these days, it's slowly dying and the boxers ain't helping.

The thing about this fight is that it doesn't even need to happen. They aren't even in the same weight class and there never was a demand for the fight, all of a sudden one day hatton was like yo I wanna fight manny and they started talking.

And i disagree about boxing dying, it cant die it's been around forever and will always be around. Ratings could go down in the US, but that doesn't mean it's dead. Not like Golf didn't exist before tiger woods or some shit. It's a niche sport, always has been. Plus, the boxing world doesn't only exist in america, it's HUGE in europe, mexico, Philippines, etc.

Make the best fight the best, fucc all the mandatory title defenses...have the champ fight the number 1 contender...that would be Manny V.S. Floyd jr...if he stays retired...than have manny v.s. hatton, simple as that

I agree manny vs floyd is the best out there, but what is the next best? I mean what the hell weight class is pacquiao even in? His last fight against oscar was at 147, his fight prior to that was 135. So at 147 the best would be cotto, or margarito. Probably too big for him. At 135 the best is Marquez III, diaz, valero or nate campbell. At 140 it's ricky hatton. So it all depends on what the hell weight class pacman is going to be at, if he stays at one at all. He's got hella options and they all would be big fights.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

^^Doesn't matter anyway, according to this philippines website.....

::EDIT::
also being reported here:
http://www.fightnews.com/?p=2192


BREAKING NEWS: PACQUIAO ACCEPTS EXISTING OFFER TO FIGHT HATTON
http://philboxing.com/news/list.articles.php?aid=1&id=21927

By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
23 Jan 2009

Bacolod City -- After a long night and as the sun glimmers in the Philippines' eastern sky Friday, Pacquiao has finally gave the nod to his team to accept the existing offer from the Hatton camp to maybe finally seal the May 2 Pacquiao-Hatton superfight at MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Pacquiao and his team are currently in Manila.

Pacquiao friend and confidant Rex 'Wakee' Salud informed PhilBoxing about the good news. The final financial deal is a 12 million dollar guarantee for Pacquiao and 52-48 PPV share in Pacquiao's favor.

The negotiation has been derailed after Pacquiao demanded a 60-40 PPV sharing in his favor from a 50-50 sharing being stipulated in the original contract. The Hatton camp countered with a 52-48 sharing in Pacquiao's favor and gave Pacquiao a Wednesday deadline to sign the contract. The fight has been called off as of yesterday when Pacquiao refused to budge as both parties issued statements blaming each other for the failed negotiation.

Over 3 bottles of beer
Pacquiao, whose playful antics would create joy and difficulty in his inner circle and this time reverberated into the boxing world by playing hard to get in the negotiation table, told Salud, who does not drink, that he would accept the contract only if Salud will down three bottles of beer. Salud, who had been trying to convince Pacquiao for days to sign the contract, was forced to drink this time around in order for the deal to be consummated.

Salud also informed that Arum was elated to hear the news that Pacquiao finally accepts the deal and that Arum may even come to the Philippines to do the press conference.

The Pacquiao-Hatton superfight on May 2 in Las Vegas is the year's most anticipated fight and is expected to sell out gate and short circuit tickets and break PPV records.

 

[Tony]

What the fuck is Hatton whining about? If Pacquiao wants 60-40 and Hatton really wants to fight him, then give Pacquiao the 60-40 split. Hatton's bitch ass doesn't deserve a 50-50 split when Pacquiao is the main attraction to begin with. On top of that, Hatton would get his ass knocked out anyway.

Pacquiao may have verbally agreed to a 50-50 split, but then somebody probably got in his head and told him he should be making more than Hatton. And it's true. It's not just the fans in the Philippines that support Pacquiao, he has a monster following here in the United States as well. The same cannot be said about Hatton so the 2nd article about Hatton generating more revenue is bullshit.

If this clown really wants this to go down, give the superstar the bigger split. Pacquiao is the reason most people outside of Britain will be watching this fight.

I agree with this too!