LOS ANGELES— Manny Pacquiao heads home Wednesday to a country waiting to clog the streets in celebration of its favorite hero’s latest conquest.
The pound-for-pound king is expected to arrive early Friday in Manila, where he will make the usual rounds of courtesy calls, including one to President Macapagal-Arroyo, whose husband Mike was around when Pacquiao wrote his name in boxing’s history books.
Pacquiao defeated Miguel Cotto Saturday in Las Vegas to annex the Puerto Rican’s WBO welterweight crown and become the first boxer to win world titles in seven different weight categories.
“I’m sure the people are screaming right now,” Pacquiao said when asked after the bout what he thought his countrymen were doing right after he annihilated Cotto via a 12-round technical knockout.
“This victory is for them, for all the support they have given me,” he added.
Pacquiao is expected to take a vacation after his toughest fight so far, one where he received more hits than his last three victories combined.
“Cotto is a tough fighter and it was a tough fight,” said Pacquiao.
While on vacation, his management team will try to put together the biggest fight of 2010, a superbout pitting Pacquiao against undefeated former pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Mayweather eased the path toward the fight—which will kick off with a long-drawn war at the negotiating table—when he called out Pacquiao right after the Cotto bout.
Mayweather, in fact, showed he’s serious by plunging into a rigorous workout in a Las Vegas gym just 36 hours after Pacquiao’s latest conquest.
On top of the negotiations will be the purse split between the two fighters. Trainer Freddie Roach said that Pacquiao deserves a larger share of the purse because of the huge pay-per-view hits generated by his latest fight.
Roach said Mayweather’s fight—a 12-round decision over Juan Manuel Marquez—generated over one million PPV buys because of Pretty Boy’s opponent.
Although no figures were released at presstime, reports from Puerto Rican media had said that the fight, dubbed “Firepower,” generated a whopping $120 million in PPV revenues.
Mayweather, meanwhile, said in a story posted by Fighthype.com that he still deserves a lion’s share of the profits in a bout against Pacquiao because all roads lead to him.
“Floyd Mayweather is the face of boxing,” said Pretty Boy. “All roads lead to Floyd Mayweather.”
Bob Arum, chief of Pacman promoter Top Rank, had earlier said he wouldn’t participate in trash talking to get the fight done and that he would not negotiate a deal through the newspapers. He was expected to talk with Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer to find a compromise that will seal the deal for the megafight.
Although Mayweather promotes himself through his own company, he has been known to link up with GBP.
Pacquiao had earlier admitted that he wasn’t optimistic on a Mayweather bout because he felt a deal could not be made.
“All Mayweather cares about is money,” Pacquiao said.
Renowned trainer Emanuel Steward, however, said that if the public laps up the mere idea of a fight, it is more likely that a deal will be forged.
“There’s enough money on the table,” Steward said on the possibility of purse share derailing the bout everybody wants to see.
