If Manny Pacquiao, now a member of Philippine Congress, sticks to his words that there are three more years left in his boxing life, blame it to the financial lure of staying on top of the boxing heap.
Early reports indicated the Pacquiao-Margarito pay per view (PPV) buys will exceed the 1.15 million mark and that it has already reached US$64 million in gross receipts. The figure is expected to rise slightly after all the accounting is said and done.
While it failed to hit the 1.5 million PPV mark that Top Rank?s Bob Arum predicted, it was by all means an unqualified success.
Only two of Manny?s last five fights failed to hit the million PPV buy plateau ? against Joshua Clottey and Ricky Hatton. Yet only one of those fights is against an American ? Oscar de la Hoya. All those five fights generated a total of 5.1 million buys, according to HBO?s Mark Taffet.
Manny?s classic destruction of Miguel Angel Cotto generated 1.25 million PPVs and the demolition of Margarito will likely reach the 1.17 million mark. Including the 1.5 million PPVs buys realized from his de la Hoya fight, Manny is now the certified boxing superstar that is carrying the torch of the sports.
No two non-American boxers fighting each other have generated that kind of volume of PPV buys in the last ten years, if I am not mistaken, or ever before.
And it is a five million-reason why Manny is going to stay a little bit longer in boxing despite already having a prestigious day job.
The Holy Grail of boxing accomplishment for Manny is the conquest of Floyd Mayweather Jr, a fight that could reward both boxers a potential US$50 million pay day each.
For Manny, that would be at least P1 billion in net cold cash take home pay. It could happen in the next two years or so or it may not. Nobody, after all, has found that elusive if not mythical Holy Grail.
Short of that, the financial bonanza of Manny?s solidified status as boxing?s biggest draw is hard to ignore.
Inside three years, before his term of office as a member of Philippine Congress, Manny could fight at least four times. Even without Floyd, that is easy US$40 million in guaranteed purse. If Floyd will oblige, Manny could earn more than P2 billion, net after taxes in purse money alone.
Not a bad retirement fund for a man who grew up selling pan de sal – a salted bread popular as breakfast fare among Filipinos – and home made doughnuts as a young kid fighting out poverty.
So when Manny says, he will continue to fight, you better believe him even if you wish he would already stop.
After all, there are other reasons why he is ? aside from the money.
