Manny, Hatton to share $58M

MANILA, Philippines—About $58.2 million will be divided between Filipino hero Manny Pacquiao and British slugger Ricky Hatton as fight purse for their May 2 bout in Las Vegas, the websites of two British newspapers reported Friday.

The amount includes the expected revenue from pay-per-view buys, according to the Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph.

It said the purse will be split between the two fighters, although Pacquiao’s camp has yet to announce how much he will be receiving for the fight.

This developed as Hatton’s team again reiterated their desire to have the fight held at the historic Wembley Arena in London.

In his recent announcements, however, Top Rank chief Bob Arum said the fight would be held either at the Thomas and Mack Center of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas or the MGM Grand Garden Arena, site of Pacquiao’s eighth-round annihilation of boxing’s poster boy Oscar De La Hoya last month.

But Hatton’s team is reportedly burning the lines to bring the fight to England.

Wembley can seat a maximum of 105,000 spectators and is one of the largest stadiums in the world.

Ray Hatton, the British fighter’s father and manager, said they are trying to put together a package to show that a fight in Wembley could financially match or surpass a duel in Las Vegas.

“From our viewpoint, the fight is all but done and will go ahead,” Hatton told Telegraph Sport. “We’re just still negotiating the terms of the location. We want to have the fight over here for the British fans and we’ve been trying to put together a package to show that we can financially equal, or better, what they can do over there (in Las Vegas).”

This proposal, though, runs smack against the perspective of fight broadcaster HBO, which is insisting the fight takes place in Las Vegas because of a more lucrative pay-per-view market.

Known as “The Hitman” for his knockout prowess, Hatton, who holds the IBO light welter belt, will undergo a 12-week camp for his duel with Pacquiao.

Hatton’s training camp under Floyd Mayweather Sr. will start in February in England, before moving to Florida and Las Vegas a few weeks before the fight.

Meanwhile, former two-division champion Miguel Cotto of Puerto Rico has expressed his desire to fight stablemate Pacquiao—that is if Top Rank offers him a showdown with the Filipino.

“My promoter has some set plans for me, and if Pacquiao is part of those [plans], I’m ready to fight him,” Cotto, who is set to fight Michael Jennings on Feb. 21 for the vacant WBO welterweight belt, told El Nuevo Dia, a widely-read newspaper in Puerto Rico.

Source: inquirer.net