LOS ANGELES ? After a whirlwind of negotiations between lunch on Thursday and brunch on Friday, there was some desert for Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Bob Arum and Richard Schaefer.
The fight is on.
?A done deal,?? Arum said Friday before the Antonio Margarito-Sugar Shane Mosley weigh-in and after his Top Rank offices in Las Vegas had received a signed contract from Pacquiao for a bout with Hatton on May 2.
The agreement for a fight at Las Vegas? MGM Grand was reached within 36 hours after Hatton told Schaefer, chief executive for Golden Boy Promotions, to pull the plug on the negotiations. Arum knew he had an agreement when he finally spoke late Thursday to Pacquiao, who was at home in the Philippines.
Talks began to heat up again Thursday as Arum had lunch and took several calls from Pacquiao?s representatives in the Philippines. But Pacquiao was the one person with whom Arum did not speak during flurry of calls between Manila and a restaurant in downtown Los Angeles.
Then, Arum had planned to fly the Philippines Sunday, the morning after the Mosley-Margarito fight Saturday at Staples Center. Two news conferences were scheduled for Wednesday in the Philippines.
But the long trip and formal announcements were canceled Friday after Pacquiao?s call resulted in a swift resolution of a money issue that looked like a deal breaker a few days ago. As expected, Pacquiao, the pound-for-pound king after his stunning upset of Oscar De La Hoya on Dec. 6, agreed to the lion?s of a 52-48 split of the purse. He had demanded 60-40.
Pacquiao is expected to get a guarantee of $12 million, his biggest purse ever, even before an undisclosed percentage of pay-per-view television receipts are included.
