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Is the Manny Pacquiao vs. Ricky Hatton fight on or off?
By Zach Arnold | January 21, 2009
It seems that the media heat-up for Shane Mosley vs. Antonio Margarito seems more focused on Mosley’s supposed association with BALCO than it does with the actual fight itself.
So, we turn our focus to the boxing story that seems to be getting the most play — the media angle of ‘crazy’ Manny Pacquiao. It is rare to see boxing promoters on both sides of the coin publicly agree with each other — that would be Richard Schaefer and Bob Arum, respectively — about what could be the collapse of boxing’s biggest money fight of 2009.
If you believe the Philippine press, the fight is on and will happen. However, 30 minutes ago, Gareth A. Davies of The London Telegraph reports that the fight is off according to sources tied to Hatton’s camp.
So, where does Floyd Mayweather Jr. fit in now?
Update: GMA News and Public Affairs in the Philippines reports that Pacquiao will not accept the terms being negotiated, so the fight is being called off. Of course, Pacquiao used the same negotiating tactic with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy when the inital offer of that fight was a 70/30 split in favor of De La Hoya. Reportedly, the split ended up being around 60/40.
Boxing Scene claims that Edwin Valero would likely be Pacquiao’s next opponent. Phil Boxing says the Hatton fight is off. The Philippine Star says Pacquiao wanted a $13 million USD guarantee.
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 37 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I really hope the fight happens and agree with Hatton that no way should Manny get 60%. Manny is #1 fighter in the world but Hatton brings thousands of fans with him.
What was the split between de la Hoya and Pacquiao?
de la hoya 67%-33% Manny
I’m glad Boxing is starting to get more prominent coverage here. Being that this site is called “Fight Opinion” and not just MMA Opinion, there could be a lot more stories for Zach to use especially when he runs into those inevitable MMA slow periods.
I think if Manny learned anything from the DLH fight it’s that taking negotiations into the last second usually garners slightly better terms for him. Oscar was demanding 70-30 firm and while he only ended up getting an additional 3%, that 3% probably was very profitable considering the numbers the PPV did.
I also understand why Hatton is trying to squeeze this for every dollar he can. Should he lose to Manny his future earning potential will drop considerably. DLH who was a potential opponent probably won’t draw much anymore since he looked so washed up against Manny. Mayweather will likely move to fight Manny rather than opt for a rematch with Hatton and if you look at Hatton’s record, he hasn’t really beaten anyone that is considered the top of the division since his win over Kosta Tszyu.
He looked like he was going to get KO’d by Luis Collazo and probably lost that fight, beat an overrated Urango, beat a washed up Castillo, got knocked out by Mayweather, beat a not so great Lazcano and then beat Malignaggi who has zero punching power and is nowhere near a threat in the Jr. Welterweight Division.
Not exactly the sparkling list of opponents that makes Hatton the must-fight opponent of the big names in the Jr. Welterweight and Welterweight Division.
Rp
Hey Zach,
There is just way too much money to be made for both parties for this fight not to happen. There are also no major big money fights available for either fighter at Junior Welterweight at this time.
I think they hammer out an agreement, and Pac-Man beats Hatton. This sets up a fight with Floyd Mayweather, who according to some reports, is in major trouble with the IRS and could really use the money.
I would say Hatton has beaten enough fighters to rightly be called the top 140lbs fighter in the world. I think PBF wouldnt mind seeing Hatton beat Manny as a rematch of that fight in London would draw 90,000 people. I would say the Collazo was very tight and could of went either way and I wouldnt of complained if Hatton lost. The Knockdown in round 1 won Hatton that fight. Hatton is stuck as he has stuggled at 147lbs but is to good for everyone else at 140lbs. If he beats Manny he will have to go to 147lbs to get the big big fights. I actually think Hatton can beat Manny. I think he has the style and strength at 140lbs to cause Manny huge problems. As long as he keeps working with Floyd Snr on improving his head movement (cos he is always open to a left hand) then I think he can win that fight.
liger05- Well that’s the issue isn’t it? 140 is not a weight I think Hatton can draw too much more money at… although I think he could make some serious coin in England if he finally fought Junior Witter…
He gets mauled by most 147 lb. fighters out there. Collazo doesn’t have a ton of power but he had Ricky looking like he was going to get knocked out by the end of that fight.
Honestly the only 147 lb. fighter I see Hatton handling is the similarly undersized Andre Berto and I am not certain Hatton can handle Berto’s speed.
I think guys like Cotto, Margarito, Mosely and Williams would manhandle Ricky.
Rp
I dont understand turning down the gurantee of big money and then fighting Valero for $2 million. Even Roach doesnt understand why Manny is stalling:
Freddie Roach said that valero would be the man on deck if manny cant agree to a deal with hatton. He feels that manny is turning down a good deal & a fight with valero would be much less.
“sharing the revenue is not important in today’s economy, its the guarantee that counts. Manny is almost guaranteed triple what ricky would make.”
“its a fight we dont want to miss out on because if we dont fight ricky. were going to fight valero for 2 million dollars. were talking about a 15 million $ fight here”
From what I understand Hatton wants 50-50 and has offered Manny also a share of the UK PPV revenue. Considering the Hatton v PBF fight did 900,000 buys and Hatton got all of that I dont see where Manny is losing out.
Robert Poole – I think Margarito would beat Hatton easily but Cotto I aint to sure about. Will be interesting to see just how much the Margarito fight took out of Cotto.
Well, I guess we’ve got an answer to the question of whether the UFC feels that UFC Primetime can sell itself based on the personalities of BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre, or whether UFC Primetime needs to have fake, manufactured storylines involving BJ Penn and UFC management in order to garner interest.
What an incredible coincidence that just today, on the day of Episode 2 airing, word leaked out about Penn temporarily kicking the cameras out.
As Adam Swift wrote on MMA Payout, “Color me suspicious. Penn and Dana White are both crafty promoters and it’s definitely not out of the realm of possibility for the two to conspire to stir up some controversy to sell next weekend’s fight. Penn spent the weeks before his last fight with Sean Sherk talking up his genuine dislike for him and sold the fight as a true grudge match. Immediately following the fight Penn apologized and said that it was all pretend to hype the fight. White hasn’t been shy about interjecting himself into the company’s “storylines” (see Tito Ortiz) and has been known to borrow a page or two from the WWE promotional play book.”
Also, great job by Steve Cofield of continuing to put forward the myth that Matt Lindland’s firing from the UFC had anything to do with a Sportsbook.com t-shirt as the actual reason for firing him (as opposed to the legal excuse that enabled the UFC to do something that they already wanted to do).
Ricky Hatton is overrated and would lose horribly to either Manny Pacquiao or to Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in a rematch.
Also, as noted by Nick Thomas on Bloody Elbow, Penn’s banishment of the cameras (for the cameras, ironically) was only temporarily and was noted by Penn in an interview on Tapout Radio two days ago. It just magically leaked out today as being a major issue.
Something tells me Ivan that if you looked into successful promotion for just about any fight in history, you’d be horrified. If you don’t think Floyd hams it up for the cameras you’re delusional, if you don’t think they are intentionally creating heels and faces on 24/7, then I don’t know what to tell you.
They’re trying to promote a fight. They are trying to grab casual fans. I can only imagine what this show would look like if you were in charge. Maybe Loretta Hunt interviews about GSP’s great wrestling, and then some black belts talk about BJ’s ground game. Seriously, this criticism is mind blowing.
My argument for what the show could be is pretty much the same as Luke Thomas’ argument in the comments section of this post: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2009/1/15/724954/bj-penn-s-trainer-calls-da
Affliction 2 coming up this week, GSP vs Penn next week, and we’ve got BoxingOpinion.com live here.
🙁
Yeah Jeremy because MMA is never covered here. :shakes head:
This is “Fight” Opinion. Boxing and MMA are all relative to “Fight”.
There are plenty of topics to go around.
Rp
FightOpinion is normally about all kinds of “fights,” whether it’s MMA, boxing, or kickboxing. There has been coverage in the past of major boxing events and of K-1 kickboxing events.
It’s not my site, so I can’t control the content, but I can complain 🙂
Boxing isn’t fighting, it’s boxing.
I’m just disappointed we’re not going to get to see this fight in May.
Jeremy, not to be pissy, but boxing IS, most definitely fighting. Perhaps not your preferred form of fighting to view, but again, it IS fighting.
I was going to list some all time classics as examples, like Foreman-Lyle or any one of the Ward-Gatti trilogy. But, then I thought, hell, all one has to do is take a peek at this past weekend’s Berto-Collazo bout as proof of this fact.
I, for one, REALLY enjoy & appreciate that this site embraces & examines all the major forms of professional fight sports.
I haven’t order a boxing PPV for years. I would have ordered Hatton vs. Manny. It’s a shame the fight isn’t happening.
As for UFC Primetime, if both Penn and Dana want to promote it this way, it’s up to them. No way Penn isn’t in on this, as he loves to promote a good story line.
For me, as long as the fights are good, I could care less.
I think Romey nailed it.
Ivan would be horrified by blue skies and sunny weather if he thought Dana had anything to do with it.
Yes because god forbid you’d promote this fight based on two of the best p4p fighters in the history of the sport rematching in the face of a controversial decision, utter dominance of their respective divisions since that time, and a palpable grudge/dislike between the two fighters.
Nope let’s insert the big, bad authority and omnipotent president of the company in some stupid attempt to work-shoot a pro wrestling angle. That’s promotion boys!
Seriously, grow up. Every Penn special ever has focused on the questionable nature of his work ethic against his amazing skill. Here, with cameras all over, they found a real life example of it and used it as a TV hook for week 2 in episodic television.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they showed GSP going to a sports psychologist and then had people speculate where he is mentally. As they’ve said, they are also doing this to educate new viewers about these fighters. They want it to be the kind of stand alone series that a new fan could watch and then feel like they really know Penn and St. Pierre.
They have 3 episodes to build this up. I’m sure the final episode will focus on how both of them have dominated. There’s a reason the most successful 24/7 series featured Floyd Mayweather counting his money and taunting Oscar. He gets it more than most people. I think Penn gets it too.
Kudos to the UFC for not making Episode 2 of Primetime about artificially created storylines. The ignorance of the argument put forth by many that you need artificial controversy to sell a big fight is exposed by the extremely high quality of all but five minutes of the first two episodes of Primetime (I’m referring to the artificial controversey in the last five minutes of Episode 1). The preview special before the first Faber-Pulver fight last year is another great example. This is exactly what “building up a big fight” preview shows should be.
“Well, I guess we’ve got an answer to the question of whether the UFC feels that UFC Primetime can sell itself based on the personalities of BJ Penn and Georges St. Pierre, or whether UFC Primetime needs to have fake, manufactured storylines involving BJ Penn and UFC management in order to garner interest.”
Mmmm, this crow is delicious.
That was based on the news of Penn supposedly kicking out the producers just happening to leak out on the day of the show (when it happened several days earlier), and the probability that this would mean they would be building Episode 2 around that. They didn’t, and I’m glad they didn’t. I was hardly the only one who thought that was the direction they were going, but in this case I’m glad to have been wrong.
Ooooooh…I better “grow up” because I’d rather they don’t use unnecessary issues to hype a fight that basically sells itself?
Whatever bro, I’m not sure who died and decided all the BE guys bosses of the internet. Maybe you should try to call me up to chew me out…that would make for compelling…internet.
And how many ways could they have put over this issue about BJ not “training hard enough”?
How did they choose to play it out?
– Big boss Dana is the man, so he makes a personal call to BJ to give him heck, fire and brimstone for not training.
– Uh oh! It’s Dana!!!! I’m too scared to talk to big powerful Dana…I’ll just hide from him
– shots of Dana – international superstar
– Dana goes up the chain and calls his manager to “get to the bottom of things”
– Dana gives manager heck, fire and brimstone…manager tries to lie/b.s. Dana…but oh contre mon frere…Dana is too f^*^in’ smart for that and he’s smarter than both of them…he’s BUSTED YOU!!!
– Dana gets everyone in line.
– p.s. BJ doesn’t like to train hard sometimes…
Dana White clearly has been watching Mr. McMahon lately. Perhaps he was jealous of Mr. McMahon’s recent return to RAW. 🙂
There was no artificial controversy. Camera men covering BJ called Dana and told him there’s nothing to film, BJ is on vacation. Then he called, and it made great television, so they put it on the air.
You’re way too busy with your self-assigned role as UFC watchdog to see what’s right in front of you. The UFC always promotes the same way. They take what is really happening and blow it up beyond what it is.
Surely you were offended by BJ Penn calling GSP a “little bitch” when he almost surely doesn’t think that, and just did it for hype purposes.
No because BJ and GSP are actually going to be fighting each other and have some legitimate heat between each other over a previous fight with a controversial decision.
People say things in the heat of the moment, that they may not mean, but you can understand where they come from in the context.
In the end BJ calling GSP names – “little bitch”, “front runner”, “quitter” – will lead to come uppance or the smarmy jerk being “vindicated”. In the end when the two fighters meet in the cage, there will be a payoff…making BJ and his management look bad and White the “smartest guy in the room that everyone is afraid of” isn’t, because you can never pay it off.
Jim, Boxing isn’t fighting in the same say that NASCAR isn’t driving. Sports are regulated spectator events, they aren’t the real thing.
Boxing:MMA::NASCAR:Paris-Dakar Rally but none of those are fighting or driving, they’re sports. Not even UFC 1 was fighting, whatever they advertised it as.
Jeremy (ntJ),
Gotcha. I see where you’re coming from with your statement now.
Peace bro.
It’s not fighting unless a girl, a lead pipe, alcohol, beer bellies, stupid people going “FIGHT! FIGHT!”, cops, women screaming, guys taking their shirts off and banging their fists against their chests, etc. are involved!
It’s not driving unless red lights, people going through said red lights, people swerving on the road because of cell phone usage, lowriders going five miles per hour with hydrolics and spinning rims, minivans with little kids about to play soccer, people screaming at the top of their lungs and honking their horns even if they are in the wrong, cops, etc. are involved!
No, Chuck, both of those are GTA, you’re getting video games confused with real life again 🙂
“No, Chuck, both of those are GTA, you’re getting video games confused with real life again :)”
GTA? Are you sure? I thought I was explaining “Bully” and “Saints Row”, but what do I know. 😉