Manny Pacquiao did what he set out to do. He represented his home country of the Philippines where he is a Michael Jordan like figure. He set himself as a staple atop the pound-4-pound rankings. Oh, and, yeah he made himself well over $10 million.
Pacquiao had an $11 million minimum guarantee for this fight that could get significantly higher depending on PPV buys.
I explained last Friday how the betting line alone made Pac-man a great pick. If many fight fans were not blinded by the De La Hoya name and their love for him, Manny could have easily been the favorite at least in the educated fight community.
One thing I was surprised to find out shortly after penning that post was the Pacquiao would be fighting about a pound and a half heavier than De La Hoya. De La Hoya was moving down a weight class while Pacquiao was straying much further up from his walk-around weight to fight at 147.
De La Hoya’s weight decreased from Friday to fight night by nearly 2 pounds. He came in at 143.5 pounds on Saturday, a difference of 1.5 pounds from the weigh-in. I was shocked when HBO’s analysts said that Manny would have the weight advantage no matter how negligible. Most everyone thought that, by fight time, De la Hoya would have a near double digit advantage.
Now comes word that Floyd Mayweather might be interested in a super fight with Pacquiao. This might be the only interesting might for Manny at the moment. It would certainly mean a big payday for the two. We all know just how much ‘Money’ Mayweather needs a payday.
I don’t know if anyone watched the under card but there was one fight that was a clear fix. The guy took a dive; I am 100% sure. He was dodging punches that were not connecting and he went to one knee 3 times in the first round giving his opponent a TKO victory and thus seemingly assuring himself a huge payday as well. It’s scaring but this stuff really happens. You don’t want to end up like Butch from Pulp Fiction, do ya?!
Lastly, thank you to Pacquiao for giving me my payday complete with 1.5 : 1 odds. Thank you sir.
Has anyone seen any after party photos from Pacquaio’s party at the Run Jungle? I have yet to see any surface but I heard he was going wild all night.
