According to ESPN’s Dan Rafael, the proposed huge May fight between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton has been called off.

Pacquiao hasn’t been happy with the 50/50 split, even though it seems that he’d be the smaller worldwide draw. After his victory over Oscar De La Hoya made him a bigger boxing star, it seems that he and his camp thinks he deserves a bigger percentage of the share.

But all along, there was trouble. Pacquiao (48-3-2, 36 KOs) refused to back off his demand for a bigger share of the pie. For weeks, they’ve gone back and Hatton eventually agreed to give Pacquiao a few more points. However, Pacquiao still had not signed by a Wednesday deadline and Hatton and his father, Ray Hatton, instructed Schaefer to pull the plug on the fight.

It’s frustrating to think that this fight is now not going to happen because Pacquiao thinks he deserves more of the share. It’s really a pissing match to see who deserves the most money. Supposedly, Hatton’s camp even conceded to give Pacquiao more of the share, but it wasn’t enough. Boxing is all about the money, not about the fights, and this is partly why the UFC has been able to attract some of boxing’s audience. In the UFC, because the fighters are all under the same roof and under contract, you usually don’t see fighters pull out for this reason. There have been exemptions to that like Randy Couture, but he eventually came back.

Richard Schaefer said:

“It’s unfortunate and not uncommon for fighters to make these kinds of decisions,” Schaefer said. “When you beat the man, you think you are the man. Pacquiao is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world and as his co-promoter (with a small percentage) we are proud of him. But he thinks by beating Oscar that he is Oscar and he is not Oscar. It’s unbelievable. Manny is losing a huge, huge payday.”

Ouch.

I’m not so sure that this is as dead end of a deal as the promoters are making it out to be because money talks, but I have to think that Hatton, rather than Pacquiao holds the cards. And it doesn’t look like Pacquiao is going to come down.

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