As it turns out, Manny Pacquiao isn’t simply squaring off against Juan Manuel Marquez for the thrill of fighting in front of a record crowd. He’s also getting a small financial reward. How small?
Over $20 million, he says. According to my expert math and soothsaying ways, that means Pacman will earn $4 million per round. Marquez won't last more than 5 rounds -- assuming Marquez stands and fights -- and Pacquaio will have his knockout by Round 6. Four million bucks for every three minutes of fighting.
Great work if you can get it.
While doing press with Marquez for their upcoming bout, Pacquiao stopped to speak to the Philippine Star regarding some of the more notable storylines heading into the match. One of the topics of conversation, interestingly enough, was the finances involved. When pressed about the total amount by interviewers, Pacquiao played it coy initially, but did admit that it was over $20 million.
Furthermore, he also reveal that he was getting a greater piece of the pie than he did against “Sugar” Shane Mosley in his previous outing. Given what he took in on the last go-round, that means the Filipino champion stands to make in excess of $30 million altogether if the pay-per-views (PPVs) and everything perform to expectations. Top Rank boss, Bob Arum, recently noted that he expected more than 1.3 million PPV buys for this match. In fact, he also alluded to the fact that nearing 2 million buys was not out of the question.
Marquez, in turn, has been guaranteed $5 million for his promise to fight Pacquiao on November 12 – the biggest payday of his long career. As it turns out, there’s a lot of money in renting yourself out as a punching bag for Pacquiao for a single night.
What makes this match all the more fascinating are the recent admissions by Pacquiao, Arum and the like that the Filipino superstar’s career is winding down. The prospect of never seeing the currently best pound-for-pound fighter anymore is expected to bring in even the most rebellious of fans, who previously may have sworn off this coming match because of a perceived lack of competitiveness.
It has been nearly unanimously agreed to by all boxing skeptics that despite the pair’s history, Marquez has little to no shot at defeating Pacquiao this time around. The first time these two men fought, the match ended in a draw – although later a judge would admit that he miscounted in Marquez’s favor. Pacquiao went on to win the second match, however, in fairly controversial fashion.
Regardless of what happens in the ring, given the staggering sums of money involved, both men should emerge from the match on November 12 feeling very, very good about themselves.