Memo to Manny: just sign the contract.

Manny Pacquiao’s latest financial gripe is that he deserves a 60/40 split of the revenue for his potential May 2^nd megafight with junior welterweight world champ Ricky Hatton. Of course, this is after he agreed verbally to a 50/50 split for the fight according to multiple sources, including Pacman’s promoter Bob Arum and Hatton’s lawyer Gareth Williams.

Pacman’s argument? He just scored a major upset over boxing’s biggest star, Oscar De La Hoya, in PPV megafight this past December. On the contrary, Hatton’s only PPV superfight was a 10^th round TKO loss to then pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather in 2007.

Why doesn’t that argument work? Because boxing is a business and Hatton can draw more money. The amount of PPV sales from Hatton’s native England will be massive and the amount of Brits who will make the trek overseas will be huge.

Over 30,000 of Hatton’s fans from England flew to Las Vegas in December of 2007 for his fight with Mayweather. The majority of those fans couldn’t even get into the building for the actual bout. The MGM Grand’s capacity could not hold them. Still they made the trip to take in the atmosphere of their homeland hero in a big fight in Vegas.

Pacquiao, a native of the Philippines, won’t bring in nearly as many fans from his homeland to the fight and will bring in no foreign PPV dollars because his fight’s are shown for free in his cash strapped native country.

Hatton can’t make more money against any other fighter in the world right now, save for another fight with Mayweather, therefore he has agreed to the 50/50 split with Pacquiao recognizing that they both bring something to the table. They need each other to make the big bucks and an even split seems fair to Hatton and most others involved in the negotiations.

In an interview with 8countnews.com recently, Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said, “I think both sides can move on this, and get this fight done, maybe at 55/45?”

However, Hatton’s team seems to be standing firm at 50/50. What if the negotiations fall through and the fight doesn’t happen?

“Then we will move on and fight Floyd Mayweather”, says Roach.

Two things should be noted in regards to that last statement: (1) Floyd Mayweather is retired. (2) If Floyd does come out of retirement for a fight with Pacquiao, you can count on him wanting the lion’s share of the money. Considering Pacquiao’s tendency to want more than what’s being offered, like he’s doing now with Hatton and he did previously with his fight with De La Hoya, this could pose a problem.

Prior to Pacquiao’s bout with De La Hoya, negotiations almost fell through because Pacquiao didn’t want a 70/30 split with De La Hoya, with the 70% going to Oscar. Eventually they came to an agreement and the fight was made.

If a fight with Hatton and Mayweather fall through because of Pacquiao’s financial desires, the only other fight out there that would make sense is a rubber match with lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez. Previously, Marquez and Pacquiao fought to a controversial draw in 2004 and a much disputed decision win for the Phillipino in 2008.

The Problem for Pacquiao? Marquez represents a huge threat, with a reward not as high. The only thing about this fight that favors Pacman is that he clearly is the bigger draw out of the two. Therefore, he’d certainly get the revenue split in his favor, despite the fact that the money they’d be splitting would probably be significantly less than a bout with Hatton or Mayweather.

To reiterate: Manny, just sign the contract. 50/50 is fair for everybody and the money will be plenty.