INQUIRER Sports

HOLLYWOOD—There is a battle brewing beneath the surface of the Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto showdown on Nov. 14, the repercussions of which could be felt in the boxing duel everybody wants to see next year.

With tickets sold out for the “Firepower” fight card, Top Rank chief Bob Arum hopes that Pacquiao’s quest to become the first boxer to win seven different weight crowns will also end up scoring a coup in pay-per-view receipts by earning enough to give him the leverage to negotiate for next year’s biggest fight.

Pacquiao vs Floyd Mayweather Jr.

“This fight has been sold out and you can’t buy a ticket anymore,” said Arum. “And that’s good. The closed-circuit locations are as big as any a fight in history. I’m looking at a big record to be set.”

Pacquiao and Mayweather duking it out in a battle between the last two boxers to hold the mythical pound-for-pound throne is without doubt next year’s biggest blockbuster—if it pushes through. Pacquiao had said it is unlikely because all “Pretty Boy” cares about is money.

But Golden Boy Promotions chief executive officer Richard Schaefer had said the money split could be solved by collating results of the pay-per-view revenue of the “Firepower” card.

Schaefer said that if Pacquiao’s fight against Cotto overwhelmingly beats Mayweather’s bout against Juan Manuel Marqeuz in pay-per-view sales, it would give the Pacman a good case to make in bidding for a larger share of the overall purse. The Mayweather-Marquez match generated 1 million pay-per-view buys and Arum thinks Pacquiao-Cotto will top that.