Recently, John Chavez of TheBoxingTruth.com contacted the Nevada State Athletic Commission to acquire the reported purse amounts of both Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. According to the official documents, which are public record and have been verified by Executive Director Keith Kizer, the numbers are alarmingly lopsided. It appears that over the past 6 years, the combined total of Pacquiao's purses are a mere fraction of what Mayweather has earned over the same time period and in almost half the number of fights. Check out how the numbers compare!
MANNY PACQUIAO [click here to see the scanned image of the document]
11/12/11 - vs. Juan Manuel Marquez - $6,000,000 *
05/07/11 - vs. Shane Mosley - $6,000,000
11/14/09 - vs. Miguel Cotto - $7,400,000
05/02/09 - vs. Ricky Hatton - $7,400,000
12/06/08 - vs. Oscar De La Hoya - $6,600,000
06/28/08 - vs. David Diaz - $3,000,000
03/15/08 - vs. Juan Manuel Marquez - $3,000,000
10/06/07 - vs. Marco Antonio Barrera - $2,000,000
11/18/06 - vs. Erik Morales - $3,000,000
01/21/06 - vs. Erik Morales - $2,000.000
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TOTAL = $46,400,000
* Not shown on the NSAC documents, but confirmed by Dan Rafael of ESPN.com
FLOYD MAYWEATHER [click here to see the scanned image of the document]
09/17/11 - vs. Victor Ortiz - $25,000,000
05/01/10 - vs. Shane Mosley - $22,500,000
09/19/09 - vs. Juan Manuel Marquez - $10,000,000
12/08/07 - vs. Ricky Hatton - $11,000,000
05/05/07 - vs. Oscar De La Hoya - $10,000,000
11/04/06 - vs. Carlos Baldomir - $8,000,001
04/08/06 - vs. Zab Judah - $5,000,000
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TOTAL = $91,500,001
It should be noted that in 2010, Pacquiao had two fights [vs. Joshua Clottey and vs. Antonio Margarito] outside of NSAC's jurisdiction, therefore those numbers are not included in the totals. That being said, one can assume that his purse for each bout was probably no greater than the $7.4 million he averaged in 2009 and no less than the $6 million he averaged in 2011. According to those figures, Manny Pacquiao's officially reported purses have been, on average, roughly half of what Floyd Mayweather has been getting. Although the documents do not disclose revenue also generated from pay-per-view upside, it's extremely doubtful that Pacquiao is getting significantly more than Mayweather in that department, especially considering that they both do similar numbers and in Pacquiao's case, Top Rank retains 27.5%. While I personally believe the subject of a 50/50 split is irrelevant, mainly because Bob Arum was never interested in staging the fight on May 5 to begin with, given those numbers, it's understandable why Mayweather might allegedly inform Pacquiao that a $40 million guarantee would be significantly more money than he's been currently making. Regardless, one can't help but wonder exactly why Pacquiao's purse amounts being reported to the Nevada State Athletic Commission are significantly lower than Mayweather's purses. Perhaps VisionQwest Resources Group, the accounting company that Pacquiao originally hired because he "believed that his fight promoter was not paying him his fair share", was on to something before they were mysteriously fired.
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