Toward the end of Manny Pacquiao’s 11-round annihilation of Marco Antonio Barrera in San Antonio last weekend, the HBO announcing team, presumably intentionally, let it slip that while the network had budgeted some $700,000 for Pacquiao’s share of the purse, the Filipino’s contract somehow paid him just $300,000 for a virtuoso performance that has to rate as boxing’s upset of the year.
Both HBO and the Pacquiao camp are investigating the shrunken purse (one member of the latter suggested a few days ago that the most of the missing $450,000 probably wound up in the pocket of promoter Murad Muhammad), but you can bank on this much: It will be a long time before Pacquiao, who immediately inserted himself into a three-way battle with James Toney and Ricardo Mayorga for Fighter of the Year honors, fights for so little again.
