(How about $1 Million dollars and an autographed 8×10?”)
Manny Paquiao told reporters during a recent media scrum that Floyd Mayweather recently called him up and offered him a guaranteed $40 million purse, but said he wasn’t willing to share a cent of the pay-per-view cut.
“I spoke with Floyd on the phone. He called me on the weekend. I told him, ‘Let’s make the fight happen and I agree for 50/50 [on the pay-per-view] and whatever blood testing you want, as long as you agree for 50/50.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do this. I’ll give you this amount and no more pay-per-view for you,” Pac Man recalled with a chuckle. “After that, I gave it to my people [to handle]. He was very serious. It’s okay with me that he has a bigger guarantee and I have a smaller guarantee, but it’s 50/50 for the distribution of the pay-per-view.”
According to Paquiao’s manager, the final offer given to Mayweather was a $50 million guarantee for Manny and a 45-55 percent split of the pay-per-view revenue, but “Pretty Boy Floyd” just wasn’t having it.
“Manny said,’ ‘Let’s make it a prize fight where the winner will get a prize less than 10 percent more than the loser,” he explained.
Paquiao revealed that the bout, if it does happen, could be his final fight and said that his family wants him to retire too.
“My kids — the youngest one is 11 years old and he said, ‘Daddy, I want you to retire, but, before you retire I have one request.’ I [asked him], ‘What is that? And he said, ‘Give me one [more fight]. Fight Mayweather, beat him, and then retire.’ Even my kids [want to see that fight happen].”
(Video courtesy of YouTube/P4PESCO)