Email WhatsApp 4K Shares

By Chris Williams: After turning down a $40 million offer for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2012 in saying that he wanted a 50-50 deal, Manny Pacquiao has suddenly changed his tune for some reason. He’s now saying he’ll fight Mayweather for free, as long as he agrees to the same thing. Pacquiao wants to give the money to charity. What changed Pacquiao’s mind to want to give his entire purse away to charity?

Pacquiao said to the Inquirer “I challenge him to include in our fight contract that both of us will not receive anything out of this fight. We will donate all the proceeds of the fight…to charities around the world.”

This looks like a knee-jerk reaction from Pacquiao in response to Mayweather saying he’s desperate for money because of Pacquiao’s high interest in fighting him. Mayweather thinks Pacquiao needs the cash to pay off outstanding tax debts.

Mayweather aught to agree to the deal and see if Pacquiao is serious about wanting to give his entire purse away. That would be interesting if Pacquiao whistled a different tune if Mayweather agreed to fight him with the cash being donated to charity. But it is odd that the $40 million that Mayweather offered to Pacquiao wasn’t accepted by him 2 years ago, but then now after Mayweather calls him desperate, Pacquiao is saying they should give the money away to charity.

Pacquiao is a politician as well as a boxer, and stuff like giving away his purse to charity probably goes over real well with his constituents. That’s a good soundbite having news like that travel around the country. Of course, if Mayweather were to call his bluff, it would be interesting to see if Pacquiao danced to a different tune or if he would stick with the giving his entire purse to charity bit.

If Pacquiao is really devoted to giving to charity, then he should give his next purse for his April 12th fight to charity too. He’s probably going to get at least $20 million for the fight, and while that’s probably about one-third of what he’d get for the Mayweather fight, it could still fill a lot of hungry mouths if he were to give it away. What’s so golden about Pacquiao having to fight Mayweather for him to give his purse away. Pacquiao should do it for his next fight in April. And while he’s at it, he should try and get his next opponent Tim Bradley to agree to give his entire purse away as well. Maybe Bradley will be eager to accept the idea as well.