In a TV interview with Pacquiao’s former strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza, he brought up the recurring issue of pay inequity in the long-running Pacquiao-Arum partnership.
In his statement, Ariza cited the recent Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which broke all records in boxing history for having generated 4,400,000 pay-per-view (PPV) buys. He said Pacquiao may have been short-changed in their 40 percent share of the proceeds.
It may be recalled that Mayweather and Pacquiao agreed to a 60-40 purse sharing in their “Fight of the Century,” which translated to around $150 million for Pacquiao and over $300 million for Mayweather.
Ariza also said Mayweather “was concerned about how much money Manny Pacquiao got. There were things that didn’t add up to Floyd and Manny should have made much more than he got.” According to Philboxing’s Ronnie Nathanielz, Ariza alleged that Mayweather “was shocked at what he (Pacquiao) got.”
While no specific figures have been mentioned by Ariza, there were recurring talks about the alleged pay inequity that Pacquiao is getting in his working arrangement with Arum.
On several occasions in the past, Pacquiao had indicated that he won’t junk Arum for another promoter saying that without the 84-year-old promoter, he won’t be what he is today.
Pacquiao’s attitude is typical of a Filipino family value of “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude). It is a natural reaction or attitude of a typical Filipino to pay a debt of gratitude to anyone who has done him a favor or good deeds by reciprocating what the person did to him.
During the lengthy negotiations for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, Mayweather goaded Pacquiao to break ties with Arum as a precondition for him to agree to the terms of the contract. Evidently Pacquiao, despite his burning desire to bag the lucrative Mayweather fight, did what he had to do because of his debt of gratitude to Arum.
If Mayweather comes out of retirement and decides to do a rematch with Pacquiao, he needs to wait until Pacquiao’s contract with Arum expires by the end of this year.
Still, there is no guarantee Arum won’t ask Pacquiao to renew his contract by the end of the year and most probably Pacquiao will agree. Again, blame it to the Filipino in him and the value of utang na loob.
