De la Hoya-Manny Pacquiao December Fight: One of the biggest in boxing history
September 10, 2008 by admin
Filed under Manny Pacquiao
The Ali-Frazier trilogy in the 1970’s and the Sugar Ray Leonard bouts with Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler in the 80’s are just some of the only few historic and unforgettable bouts in boxing history. Expect the Oscar de la Hoya-Manny Pacquiao December 6 bout to join this shortlist of hall of famer ring encounters.
Last year’s Oscar De la Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. bout was recorded to be the largest pay-per-view fight in boxing history at 2.4 million buys. Mayweather won, and is now a filthy-rich boxing retiree at age 31. While De la Hoya lost, he earned a record $58 million purse.
Oscar de la Hoya has announced his retirement and he wants another fight with the same magnitude as, if not surpassing, that May 5, 2007 fight with Mayweather, Jr. The De la Hoya-Pacquiao is expected to become another biggest earning fight in boxing history after the blockbuster De la Hoya-Mayweather Jr. bout last year. Trust Golden Promotions in coming up with such top-grosser events. Remember the first boxing loss he suffered agains Felix Trinidad? It was also the largest non-heavyweight pay-per-view fight during its time.
Oscar de la Hoya wants his pre-retirement fight to be a “worldwide event,” not unlike the Mohammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard fights that are recorded in any boxing enthusiast’s memory as classics. A De la Hoya-Margarito fight, or a brawl with Ricky Hatton or Miguel Cotto would be exciting but not as lucrative and as magnificent as a megafight with today’s best pound-for-pound fighter of the world—Manny Pacquiao.
De la Hoya said, “I want a big fight. I want to go out with a big bang. I want to make it an event. I want to make it a worldwide event because I want to show the boxing world and I want to show everybody around the world that boxing is alive and well.”
Bob Arum, Top Rank’s vice president and Pacquiao’s promoter said, “This fight will demonstrate to everyone that there is no sport universally as popular as boxing.”
What both camps did not mention is that more than anything else, this fight is all for the money. Negotiations faltered at first when the Pacquiao camp initially refused Golden Boy Promotion’s offer of a 70-30 sharing in favor of Oscar de la Hoya. Perhaps the sharing has been upped to 60-40 or something in between, plus the fact that what Manny Pacquiao could earn in this fight is something equivalent to what he would earn from four major fights.
It can be recalled that Floyd Mayweather, Jr. got only a 30 percent cut and he earned $22 million from that fight last year.
