Promoter Bob Arum yesterday was unsure whether Top Rank can afford Manny Pacquiao’s staggering guaranteed asking price of $20-million for a fight with fast-rising American Terence Crawford, a fight many see as a risky one for the aging Filipino champ.
“We’ll see,” Arum told the Bulletin from Los Angeles yesterday.
Arum, 85, it seemed was not worried about Pacquiao facing Crawford, he appeared more to worry about whether Pacquiao can generate enough pay-per-view buys to meet the Filipino’s staggering price.
Pacquiao’s camp had indicated that he plans to fight on April 22 against Crawford provided he is paid $20 million, an amount that was standard pay for Pacquiao’s standard fights – in the past.
The Philippine Senate, where Pacquiao is a neophyte member, will be in recess beginning mid-March and will resume session in the first week of May, making it possible for Pacquiao to train in earnest.
Arum says that save for Pacquiao’s historic meeting with Floyd Mayweather in 2015, a showdown that posted 4.4 million PPV buys, his PPV performances as of late haven’t been that enticing.
In April last year when Pacquiao fought Tim Bradley for the third time, the PPV took a big blow as it only came up with 400,000 subscriptions.
When Pacquiao fought the second time in November against little-known Jessie Vargas, the numbers again suffered a hit, just 300,000 buys. To make that fight happen, Pacquiao agreed to a massive pay cut hoping PPV will make up for the cut.
Mike Koncz, Pacquiao’s longtime adviser, feels that the $20-m asking price is just right as this had been the 38-year-old regular purse except when he faced Vargas.
This was Pacquiao’s guarantee when he went up against Juan Manuel Marquez, Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Shane Mosley when his PPV numbers hit the roof.
Against Oscar De La Hoya in 2008, the PPV reached 1.25 million and his numbers improved even more against Marquez (third fight) at 1.4 million, Cotto at 1.25 million, Margarito at 1.15 million and Mosley at 1.3 million.
Arum is actually in the process of finalizing his trip to Manila to discuss what’s on the horizon for Pacquiao. (N. Giongco, mb)