DESPITE the “knock down in the first round” in its promotional battle against Top Rank Inc., Golden Boy Promotions showed no ill feelings against Manny Pacquiao.
Instead, GBP offered a 50-50 deal for the Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera rematch on pay-per-view, which will be staged at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on March 17.
Obviously, Golden Boy wants the fight to happen two months before the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. showdown, which is also a pay-per-view event.
GBP CEO Richard Schaefer countered the offer of Bob Arum to pay Barrera $2.5 million plus cut out of the pay-per-view share for the Apr. 28 fight in Macau, with a deal that would probably make both parties happy.
“We understand that both fighters want this fight to happen and Golden Boy Promotions doesn’t want to stand in their way.
We therefore would be willing to stage this fight under a 50-50 deal,” Schaefer was quoted by Boxingtalk.com.
Successful
Meanwhile, Arum, who left the country yesterday after a successful mission of convincing Pacquiao to honor his contract with his outfit, Top Rank, is ready to discuss this matter with the Golden Boy Promotions.
“They wanted 50-50 (deal), I believe we can discuss that matter. We are open to any possibilities. I have offered Barrera $2.5 million guaranteed plus a cut for the pay-per-view sales. We are going to discuss all these things when I arrived in the US. I call up Golden Boy to start the negotiations,” said Arum.
However, Golden Boy’s offer have its hitches as Schaefer wanted Pacquiao’s share on the promotional profits to be put in an escrow account until after the resolution of the legal battle between the two outfits.
“We further agree to put the promotional profits attributable to the Pacquiao side of the deal into an escrow account until such time that the courts decide who’s the legal promoter of Pacquiao. At such times these profits would be either distributed to either Golden Boy or Top Rank,” added Schaefer.
Golden Boy, on the other hand, still believes that ARum has no right over this promotion since “Top Rank doesn’t have options on either fighter.”
“Golden Boy, on the other hand, has a valid promotional deal with Barrera and believes that ultimately, as well with Pacquiao.
It’s now up to Manny Pacquiao to accept this deal, which is of course substantially better than this fight going to purse-bid where Golden Boy would insist on the standard 75-25 split in favor of the champion, Marco Antonio Barrera,” stressed Schaefer.
