Manny Pacquiao, boxing’s only eight-division champion, has signed a contract extension with promoter Top Rank that will keep the Filipino icon with the company through the end of 2014, chairman Bob Arum told ESPN.com on Friday. Read more after the jump.
“Manny’s contract with Top Rank runs out on Dec. 31, 2013, and we’ve extended the contract for yet another year, to Dec. 31, 2014,” Arum said before the weigh-in for Saturday’s Nonito Donaire-Toshiaki Nishioka junior featherweight championship fight.
Arum said the deal was ironed out last month when Pacquiao was in the United States for the media tour to promote his fourth fight against Juan Manuel Marquez, a welterweight showdown Dec. 8 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“I’ll confirm that Manny has signed an extension,” Michael Koncz, Pacquiao’s adviser, told ESPN.com. “The extension was done very quickly. A few phone calls back and forth, and it was done. It was a 10-minute thing at the most.
“Manny and I went through the contract before he flew home to the Philippines (after the media tour), but the discussions were between me and Arum, and then maybe two or three phone calls between me and Manny, and the extension was done in a matter of 10 minutes. It was not a lengthy process.”
Arum also said Pacquiao (54-4-2, 38 KOs) received a $1 million signing bonus with the opportunity to receive another $1 million “if there are two fights in 2014. But a million, he’s got already.”
Koncz would not confirm the dollar amount.
“I never comment on Manny’s money. There was a bonus involved, but I’m not going to disclose the amount,” Koncz said.
Top Rank has promoted Pacquiao since early 2006, when it signed him for a rematch against Erik Morales, whom he wound up fighting three times.
Under Top Rank’s guidance, Pacquiao, now a congressman in the Philippines, won titles in five of the eight weight classes he has been champion in and became a worldwide star.
“He said he’s happy for the deal and happy for the bonus, but there was no way he was going to leave me until his career was over,” Arum said. “It wasn’t like he was putting any pressure on me (for the extension). I don’t want to give that impression. He certainly wasn’t.”
Sidenote: Floyd Mayweather detests Bob Arum. I believe that’s why the fight hasn’t happened yet and with this contract extension it’s now even more unlikely. Both Pacquiao and Mayweather are getting older and public interest for the fight is waning so if this is the fight you’ve been waiting for, it’s probably best you let it go.
