Mayweather vs Pacquiao: Floyd Offered $40 Million Flat Fee, Wanted to Keep All Revenue and PPV

A report from the Philippines (via BoxingScene.com) says that Floyd Mayweather Jr offered Manny Pacquiao a $40 million flat fee to fight on May 5, but none of the pay-per-view or other revenue the bout would generate. Pacquiao turned down the offer:

“He said he will guarantee me $40 million but I won’t have any share on the pay-per-view and other sources of revenue. How can he leave me out of the pay-per-view when I generate more than him in pay-per-view sales? I am still praying that Mayweather gets enlightened because I believe that I am not being unreasonable.”

On the surface, this turns into a bit of a maze to figure out if Pacquiao is or isn't being unreasonable, or if Mayweather is or isn't being foolish.

Yes, the $40 million would be, by far, a career high for Pacquiao. Richard Schaefer estimated that Floyd left his September 2011 bout with Victor Ortiz with around $40 million total, so $40 million wouldn't be a career high for Mayweather, but back to that in a moment.

For that fight, Mayweather was guaranteed a $25 million purse. That's per the Nevada State Athletic Commission pay sheets. Pacquiao's pay sheet purses were $6 million for the Mosley fight, $6 million for the Marquez fight. His guarantees were $20 million and $22 million. Pacquiao obviously left with more than $6 million for those fights, but I certainly can't say exactly what it was in either case, if the $20-22 million was really met, or if it was less, or how much less, or maybe even more.

But back to the other thing: Mayweather would be, you know, leaving with a lot MORE money than $40 million under this proposed deal, and Pacquiao's right: Why shouldn't he share in the pay-per-view revenue? Mayweather's not selling this by himself, and any belief that he is is false and, frankly, quite stupid.

So I guess on this one I lean toward Pacquiao. Sure, he once said he'd take less than a 50-50 split do to the fight, but he does deserve his share of at least the PPV revenue. I mean, come on. He shouldn't just do backflips because Floyd offered him $40 million.

I wish one of these guys would land the Cotto fight, the other would land whatever he's going to land, and we could just move on. Get in the ring and shut up.