CHICAGO?In a Dec. 8 blockbuster at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather will battle Ricky Hatton for the WBC welterweight title.
Mayweather, 30, is unbeaten (38-0, 24 KOs) and has won belts in five different weight classes. Always a marquee attraction, Pretty Boy is staring at another handsome payday, at least $12 million.
Also undefeated (43-0, 31 KOs), Hatton has snatched titles at 140 and 147 pounds. A budding international star, The Hitman from England got an $8 million contract.
But when Manny Pacquiao, arguably the best fighter pound-for-pound, climbs the ring this Oct. 6 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, his purse is only an estimated $3 million.
According to a controversial report posted at Philboxing.com, the pay disparity is pissing the PacMan out of Pacquiao. So much so that Manny will allegedly back out of his Oct. 6 date with Marco Antonio Barrera.
Michael Marley, the sweet-writing executive editor of BoxingConfidential.com, claims to have ?Filipino insiders? feeding him juicy information.
But are these insiders credible? Are they really in Manny?s inner circle? Or could they possibly be just former Team Pacman members with a malicious axe to grind?
We will never know because as a journalist, Marley is not obligated to name his sources.
But is Pacquiao really upset that Hatton is getting an $8 million pay?
I don?t know, but he probably is.
Look, Mayweather is an excellent fighter. But he doesn?t like to get hit, which is why most of his fights are boring as watching paint dry.
Hatton, meanwhile, is like the monthly bills. He keeps coming, and he doesn?t mind introducing his face to an angry boxing glove. He hits a lot, too, but sadly, he does it with little fistic or artistic flair.
Manny, however, is all fun and fury. He is a race car without a reverse gear. A heartless assassin, Pacquiao is excitement and electricity in short pants. And he is beautiful to watch, a southpaw with a killer right.
Every time Pacquiao throws a punch, the arena shakes.
In other words, Manny is the real deal, a boxer in the truest sense of the word. He is the kind of fighter even a peace advocate would love to watch.
So why is he getting a mere $3 million purse?
Yes, Pacquiao is probably upset.
But he is also a man. He will honor his commitment this Oct. 6.
Pacquiao is also a businessman. He knows that $3 million is a whole lot more than nothing.
GO EASY ON MIKE. Michael ?Mike? Marley is a good friend of mine. He is a lawyer who used to write for the New York Daily news.
When Marley worked with a Sycuan Promotions card last Dec.23, 2005, he gave Sun.Star Cebu a credentialed, ringside seat to the Boom-boom Bautista-Gerardo Espinosa duel in El Cajun, California.
Before he built what is now the formidable BoxingConfidential.com, I used to write for Marley at fightnightnews.com. He is a good guy, a gentleman who will give the shirt off his back for a friend.
For his series of stories, Marley has been sprinkled with pariah dust by the hordes of Manny Pacquiao fans. Even Pacquiao?s lawyer, Jeng Gacal, was so infuriated that he challenged Marley to a fistfight.
It is easy to understand all the frustrations. After all, Marley?s stories, which also angered Pacquiao, has proven to be quite a distraction.
Marley could have possibly been fed with wrong information by the wrong people. But in the ongoing soap opera known as Manny Pacquiao?s superstar life, how was Marley supposed to know which ones are the right people peddling the right information?
So Marley wrote the Pacquiao stories, hoping to fan out the truth. And if you re-read those articles, you can tell that his ink doesn?t wield any malice, just beautiful prose, spiced with some gossip and humor on the edges.
Marley is a writer, a good one at that. He may have been misinformed, but he did what he had to do, which is write the stories as best he could. He shouldn?t be vilified for that.
