by Nick Giongco
Manila, Philippines – While there remains a clamor for a fifth fight between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, the Filipino fighter’s top adviser said Marquez will not get a boost in earnings should the fight happen.
Mike Koncz said that Marquez earned just $1.4 million during his fight with Mike Alvarado over the weekend in Los Angeles and he doesn’t see any reason why the Mexican should get triple that amount.
While Koncz didn’t categorically say how much they are willing to shell out to sign up Marquez for a fifth fight possibly taking place on Nov. 16 in Macau, it is believed that Marquez would be lucky to pocket $5 million.
“We won’t him pay more than what we think he deserves to be paid,” said Koncz, who is flying to Macau next week to meet up with Top Rank big boss Bob Arum so they could talk about what’s down the road.
The fourth time they met in 2012, Marquez, fading and bloodied from Pacquiao’s battering, landed a perfectly-timed right hand that sent the onrushing Pacquiao down for the count.
Marquez, who turns 41 in August, has been dilly-dallying about his future even though he had admitted before beating Alvarado that a fifth showdown with Pacquiao is on the horizon.
Moments after scoring a unanimous decision over Alvarado in their 12-round welterweight war at the Forum, Marquez told reporters that he doesn’t know what to do next and that he will have a clearer picture of what steps to take after spending some time with his family.
Arum said the most sensible thing to do next is to pair Pacquiao and Marquez again but if that doesn’t get made, there are other options.
There’s Ruslan Provodnikov of Russia, who, despite being also trained by Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, could end up facing Pacquiao owing to the tremendous amount of money involved.
Arum expects a deal to be made soon as the Venetian-Macau is bringing Pacquiao a second time following the huge success of last year’s faceoff with Brandon Rios.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao will spend most of his free time forming the Kia Motors team that will make its debut in the PBA in the third week of October.
Pacquiao said more players are going to show up when he holds a tryout on May 26.
Last week, a handful of former PBA players turned up when Pacquiao showed up for a workout at members-only The Village in Las Pinas.
“There’s going to be more (named) players taking part next time,” said Joe Ramos, one of Pacquiao’s staffers.