Bob Arum has spoken about his desire to see Manny Pacquiao fight Terence Crawford and Freddie Roach, while acknowledging the fight would be a tough one for Manny, says it could happen. But yesterday, in speaking with The Manila Bulletin, Pac-Man’s right hand man Michael Koncz put a potential spanner in the works by stating how the Filipino superstar will only agree to a fight with the unbeaten pound-for-pounder if he is guaranteed a whopping great $20 million payday.
Koncz stated:
“If it’s Crawford Top Rank wants for Manny Pacquiao, then we’ll fight Crawford but we want a guarantee of $20 million.”
Let’s be straight about this, a Pacquiao-Crawford fight would be a good, maybe even great one, and a pretty big attraction – but a $20 million-generating big attraction? Of course, for Manny to be guaranteed such a lofty sum, the fight would have to net far more than $20 mil. Naturally, Crawford would have to be paid his due, as would the promoters of the bout.
Is Pacquiao (or at least Koncz) overly worried about the prospect of facing the speed, accuracy and power of Crawford, and is this the reason for the apparent pricing himself out?
According to the Manila Bulletin article, Koncz believes the numbers he came up with are not unrealistic as Pacquiao, 59-6-2(38) received cash in that neighbourhood for his recent fights. But did Pac-Man really get paid that much for his April 2016 rubber-match with Tim Bradley, or for his November win over Jessie Vargas? It does seem unlikely.
If Pacquiao and Crawford do fight, will it be a huge attraction, pulling in casual and hardcore fans alike, or just the latter? Crawford, 30-0(21) may be developing into a big pay-per-view attraction but he’s not there yet, not at all. And is Pacquiao the massive, massive star he once was?
If Pacquiao wants as big a payday as the $20 million Koncz spoke of, he might have to lure Floyd Mayweather out of retirement. Pacquiao-Crawford would be a big fight, if not huge, and it would be one plenty of fans would watch. But it’s no mega-fight and maybe it never will be.