MANNY PACQUIAO “is the one who brings money on the table” and not Marco Antonio Barrera nor Juan Manuel Marquez, Top Rank chief Bob Arum said yesterday from Las Vegas.
Arum had earlier revealed to the Bulletin that the combined purses of Barrera and Marquez in their recent slambang slugfest only amounted to $ 3 million and Pacquiao would earn more than that when he collides with unbeaten Mexican Jorge Solis on April 14 in Texas.
But there’s a minor correction to the figures that Arum had released earlier although it only reaffirmed that the combined purses of the two Mexicans pale in comparison with what Pacquiao stands to receive next month when he returns to the site of one of his most storied victories.
Barrera and Marquez actually were paid much lower than $ 1.5 million and $ 1.25 million that had initially been published as checked by Arum and veteran sportswriter Ronnie Nathanielsz with the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Barrera was paid $ 1.25 million and Marquez took $ 700,000, which was just about the same amount he got when he faced Pacquiao in a thrilling 12-round draw in May 2004.
In the fight against Solis next month at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Arum said Pacquiao will run away with close to $ 5 million (P245,000,000), an amount that is unprecedented among Filipino athletes.
Arum also bared that the Barrera-Marquez showdown that was promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) will not likely match the 350,000 buys generated when Pacquiao and Erik Morales fought for the third time last year.
“The official figures haven’t been released yet,” said Arum. “(But) it’s not going past 200,000.”
In the event Pacquiao gets past Solis, a rangy and heavy-handed puncher from Guadalajara, Arum will try to find ways on how to pair Pacquiao with Marquez, Barrera or even another Top Rank talent, Humberto Soto “if he wins his next fight (in June in New York).”
Both Marquez and Barrera are under contract with GBP.
“It would depend on a lot of things but we are going to look around for (more) lucrative fights,” said Arum, who plans to stage another press conference sometime next week in Los Angeles, this time with Solis in attendance.
“Solis had a wrong stamp on his passport and he is going to fix it and we plan to bring him over,” said Arum.
Solis was not around when Top Rank staged press conferences in Los Angeles and San Diego last Wednesday.
