Hardly have the welts on his face began discoloring when Juan Manuel Marquez again began calling out Manuel Pacquiao for a third fight.
As if it was not enough, T-shirts have been prepared to taunt Pacquiao into giving in.
Marquez was coming off a ninth-round stoppage of Michael Katsidis after hitting the canvas in the third round.
Marquez was seconded by Richard Schaeffer, the top honcho of Oscar de la Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotion which handles the Mexican?s business side of boxing. It was a pathetic sight and a bad case of hard selling themselves. Not that Marquez does not deserve a third match. The problem really is that Marquez and Golden Boy promotions cannot wait to have the fight done simply for the love of money.
You see, Golden Boy Promotion got left out in the cold (cash) in Pacquiao?s last three fights – two of them garnering more than one million pay per view buys each. The third one, against Joshua Clottey, was just a shade or two under one million PPVs. That means Pacquiao?s last three fights averaged at least a million PPV buys each. All three ? Clottey, Miguel Angel Cotto and Antonio Margarito ? are in-house boxers of Top Rank?s Bob Arum who happens to also promote Pacquiao as his main marquee fighter.
Is Golden Boy Promotion envious?
Of course!
And it is envy seething with anger.
Remember the acrimonious legal tussle between Golden Boy and Top Rank?
The settlement calls for Golden Boy acting as the lead promotional outfit every time Pacquiao fights a boxer under de la Hoya?s promotional company. De la Hoya and Schaeffer essentially are calling the shots whenever Golden Boy Promotion is the lead promoter in a Pacquiao fight. Remember the Ricky Hatton-Manny Pacquiao fight? Pacquiao was forced to accept an even purse split even if he was the bigger draw than Hatton. Hatton, incidentally, was promoted by de la Hoya.
Whenever Pacquiao fights a boxer outside of Golden Boy Promotion stable, Oscar?s outfit only gets a minimal percentage of the promotional earnings of Pacquiao.
No wonder, Golden Boy wants Manny to fight their man (Marquez) next. It was shut out thrice already and they could not get their best guy ? Floyd Mayweather Jr ? to fight the Filipino world champion even if it meant a cool US$50 million for each of the two fighters.
Look how suddenly they are mum on Shane Mosley, a Golden Boy Promotion partner of de la Hoya. Mosley openly said he is a free agent and could directly negotiate a fight with Pacquiao after the Filipino lefty demolished Margarito. If Pacquiao again opts to fight Mosley, it would be the fourth time in a row that Golden Boy Promotion is left in the dark.
That would be another slap for de la Hoya who is trying to wrest control over world championship boxing promotions.
Marquez, of course, knew the only money fight left in the open market is a third fight with Pacquiao. It could guarantee him at least US$5 million in purse money – good enough retirement pay. No boxer in the horizon can offer him that kind of money or even half of that.
So forget about the taunting, it is not about Manny being afraid of Marquez. It is the money thing.
