MANNY PACQUIAO has sold the exclusive broadcast rights of his much-awaited Oct. 6 rematch with Marco Antonio Barrera to long-time backer Solar Sports for an undisclosed amount although industry sources believe it is much more than the $ 800,000 that the TV blocktimer paid for Pacquiao’s bout against lesser-known Jorge Solis last April.
“Solar has secured the rights to the rematch,” said Solar Sports Chief Operating Oficer Peter Chanliong yesterday of the scheduled 12-round battle that will be held at the 12,000-seat Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
GMA channel 7 was picked by Solar to do the telecast and Chanliong politely declined to say how much the company shelled out to acquire the rights from Pacquiao’s MP Promotions.
MP Promotions, according to Chanliong, holds the exclusive rights to the Barrera rematch even though the card will be co-promoted by Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) that is owned by Oscar De La Hoya.
“We don’t disclose the financial terms of every agreement,” said Chanliong, who described the amount as “significant.”
“Pacquiao always delivers the ratings and he delivers the numbers,” said Chanliong. “He’s worth every cent.”
The fight will be shown on channel 7 beginning at 10 a.m. of October 7 on a slightly-delayed basis and RPN channel 9 will do the replay in the evening.
For those who wish to see the fight as it happens, there’ll be quite a number of theaters that will be used to show the bout for a fee all over the metropolis and even in chief cities across the country, according to Solar president Wilson Tieng.
Solar also revealed that it already has struck a deal with Pacquiao for future fights possibly against Juan Manuel Marquez, Joan Guzman and Humberto Soto.
Interestingly, it was the Pacquiao-Barrera fight in Nov. 2003 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, that kicked off Pacquiao’s harmonious relationship with Solar Sports.
Pacquiao was still being managed at that time by Rod Nazario, who could not exactly remember how much Solar paid for the rights to the fight that Pacquiao won handily by an 11th-round knockout.
“That was four years ago when Manny was still making a name for himself so the price was not yet that high,” said Nazario. “But now, it’s different.”
Pacquiao, 28, plans to report for training at the Wild Card in Hollywood in the first week of August.
