Pacquiao is not the frog in the well

IF we believe in The Telegraph, a newspaper in London, the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight is all set for May 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada. It said so on Sunday.

Reportedly, the fight purse would be approximately P10 billion ($250 million). Some 40 percent of that amount will go to Pacquiao. The rest to Mayweather.

Now you know why Pacquiao, after initially insisting on a 50-50 purse split, had acceded to the demand of Mayweather that 60 percent should be his once the fight dubbed the richest in history is finally staged. That has now been officially incorporated in the contract that awaits just one component for it to be in effect: Mayweather’s signature.

Yes, Pacquiao’s share in the pie may be hugely smaller than Mayweather’s but then, when the dollar is converted into peso, it would still amount to billions of pesos going to Pacquiao’s bank account. Only the fool on the hill would toss that out the cliff.

So, who is Mr. Greed, Pacquiao or Mayweather?

In the 60-40 split set-up, Pacquiao may have lost millions of pesos in the process. But if you look at it overall, the lost millions could amount to a drop in the bucket if we see the totality of the loot Pacquiao is going to pocket in the end.

Thus, Pacquiao is seeing the larger picture, not just the piece of the sky as seen from the well graphically conveyed in that classic frigging frog scene of old. He has finally wizened up?

Already, even as Mayweather was busy vacillating, Pacquiao has started training—a screaming stance of his conviction that Mayweather will give in to the lure of and lust for money. Mayweather isn’t monikered “The Money” for nothing. Pacquiao only knows too well now how the business of boxing operates: If you have the money, I’m going to fight anyone that stands in front of me.

And that’s why when The Telegraph got a wind of the fight finally taking place, it didn’t tarry any longer. It wrote: “Manny (Pacquiao) has 100 percent signed his side of the deal. It is now over to Mayweather to close the deal and announce the fight.”

In America, scoops come a dime a dozen. And almost, if not all the time, a scoop is true.

This early, I need a ticket to ride to Vegas. I hate rush-hour stuff.