50-50 with M'weather fair - Roach

MANILA, Philippines - Their pay-per-view numbers are not too far apart, and a 50-50 deal should be a good one for Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Freddie Roach, chief trainer of the Filipino boxing superstar, yesterday said while he doubts if the loudmouthed American really wants to fight Pacquiao, the two pound-for-pound champion can make things happen with an even share of the purse.

Then the winner of the fight, the three-time Trainer of the Year added, can get a bigger share in the pay-per-view, gate receipts and merchandise sales. Maybe a 60-40 or 55-45 deal in this side of the agreement can work for both fighters.

Pacquiao said last December that if he fights Mayweather, he expects a guaranteed purse of around $25 million or roughly P1.175 billion. That’s only for the guaranteed purse, and if he wins, as Roach wants, then he gets even more on the side.

“I honestly don’t think he wants to fight Pacquiao. I think both fighters know that if they do the fight at 50-50, it’s going to happen. My guy is definitely on board,” Roach said in an article that came out of boxingscene.com yesterday.

“We definitely want the fight. Mayweather I’m not so sure. I’d like to get 60-40 our way of course. I know that we’re the bigger draw. We’ll try to get as much as we can but at the end of the day I think 50-50 will be the only way acceptable,” said Roach.

Mayweather said he wants the bigger share if he wants Pacquiao even if he had just come out of a 21-month retirement and fought a smaller Juan Manuel Marquez last September, doing 1.05 million pay-per-view sales

Pacquiao vs Miguel Cotto last week did 1.25 million buys, and it’s the first time HBO recorded back-to-back PPV sales in the millions.

“Maybe both guys get the same guarantee and the winner gets a big bonus. You can agree to $10 million guarantee apiece and the winner gets the rest. I love it when the winner gets more,” said Roach.

Roach also said March may be too soon for a Pacquiao-Mayweather, and suggested May or June as a good date to do the fight. But that should be as difficult since Pacquiao is running in the May 2010 elections in the Philippines.

Bob Arum, according to an AP report, said he’s been in touch with Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn and talked about the possibility of building a new 30,000-seat open arena in Sin City just for the fight.