Manny, Mayweather, money and more

Leave it to Manny Pacquiao to find a climax for the anticlimactic. Taking rounds late in a fight when his age and 11 months of inactivity were raised as questions, Pacquiao was better than his most recent incarnation in defeating Timothy Bradley in their third fight. This was a Pacquiao who was no longer trying to fight like a young man, but as a more experienced boxer who knew how to carve out a win. True, a knockout was not really expected (Pacquiao’s last KO victory came seven years ago), but his conditioning came to the fore. Taking rounds and a second knockdown late in the fight increased his lead over the erstwhile champion, and Pacquiao sewed up the fight comfortably in the last six rounds.

What’s next for Pacquiao? Well, the momentum from this victory should be more than enough to secure him a senate seat with votes from the masses. Throughout the last six months, surveys have consistently placed him at eighth or ninth in the race for the 12 seats in the upper chamber. This win merely renders the campaign a done deal. Claiming that he is retired will add to the public’s belief that he will concentrate on lawmaking when the new administration sits in office on July 1.

But...

As we have all seen time and time again, boxers rarely retire when they say they will. With rare exceptions like Rocky Marciano, fighters never stay retired. They just lengthen their hiatus from the ring. And there are still many factors that will come into play, and honestly, machinery that is already moving to assure that we will see Manny Pacquiao in the ring again. Things are just too good to let go of, and there is still the Moby Dick of all fights waiting. You know what I’m talking about.

But before we stand in judgment against Pacquiao, let’s consider for a moment that he has every intention of serving the public. Even without the formal swearing in to public office, Pacquiao has been more generous with others than practically any Filipino athlete in history. That has been proven. However, such charity has no monetary return. So Pacquiao keeps dipping into his personal coffers to fund his acts of kindness and some of his business failures. As a senator, his constituency is the nation, not just his congressional district. For a man who has trouble saying no to the needy and has a propensity for using his own money, where will he get the funds? Fighting again will assure a deeper well to draw from.

Let’s look at some numbers. Conservatively, if Pacquiao were to get $25 million as a guaranteed purse for another fight, plus a cut from the pay-per-view, that would come out to at least $75 million on paper. If you include ancillary revenue sources, endorsements and so on, you could be looking at a total income of $100 million, or about P 4.5 billion. That money will pay for a lot of projects, bring in taxes, and help a lot of people. And he will still be acting as a public servant. So why not? And that may just be for a tune-up fight on the road back to a rematch with Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Why have many of us been saying that there will be a second fight with Floyd? Look at it this way. Mayweather has spent 19 years, almost two decades, his entire career, chasing Marciano’s record. He’s never even fought a draw, and he’s going to be satisfied with a tie? Definitely not. And if you’re saying Mayweather is likewise retired, if you check his record, you’ll see that he’s been away from boxing this long before. Between his fights with Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez, Floyd was inactive for almost two years (December 2007 to September 2009). If he steps into the ring against Pacquiao in 2017, he can say he’s come out of a long vacation before.

Why would Mayweather want to fight Pacquiao again? Even if the pay-per-view numbers won’t be as high as the ones for their first fight, they will still be higher than if he fought anybody else. And with Pacquiao still a winner as of today, there is still that attraction, more than any other opponent. Besides, even if they fought in Macau or the Middle East or Japan, the money would still be great. They could even do geographically locked endorsements in those countries, upping their income even more. Also, Mayweather is no longer bound by his contract with Showtime, so he could conceivably earn more on the pay-per-view side by joining Pacquiao for a one-shot deal with HBO.

Also, Mayweather believes he will have every advantage in a rematch with Pacquiao. To his mind, he beat Pacquiao fair and square, and he won’t have to make any adjustments. And Mayweather would look more benevolent in giving Pacquiao a second chance at him, so it will also help his public image. A little PR would go a long way, and there will be time to build up some hype for a second fight. A few barbs here and there, and the public interest will be stoked again.

At the end of the day, Manny Pacquiao knows that there is no other way for him to raise the kind of money he can raise outside of boxing, just as he knows there is no other opponent that can raise as much money fighting him as Mayweather. The public will have a little curiosity in a tune-up fight, but will definitely support a second bout with Floyd Jr., just to settle the questions of the injury, the venue, and those nagging little factors. So, when you think about it, this isn’t the end of the road. Not just yet.