Proposed Pacquiao-Mikey Garcia July fight doesn’t add up

Fresh off his 12-round decision win over fellow welterweight contender Jessie Vargas, the question now is: what is next for former lightweight champ Mikey Garcia? Or more importantly, can he get a mega-fight with a legend?

A late Saturday night report from Mike Coppinger, boxing insider for The Athletic, says that Matchroom Boxing and promoter Eddie Hearn are attempting to put together just such a Garcia battle with future Hall-of-Famer, Manny Pacquiao:

After beating Jessie Vargas, Mikey Garcia is poised to fight Manny Pacquiao; the welterweight title tilt could land July 11 in Saudi Arabia on DAZN.

Eddie Hearn will spend the next couple of weeks trying to close a deal for a big-time fighthttps://t.co/GZjjKCJEo8

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) March 1, 2020

There are several obstacles for that fight.

Not the least of which is: what’s the truth on the WBA Welterweight champ Pacquiao’s relationship with Premier Boxing Champions to promote his next fight on Pay-Per-View?

Hearn proclaimed earlier in the week in Texas that according to Pacquiao’s manager/spokesman, Audie Attar, they are free to negotiate with him about the possible matchup with Garcia. And, it would air on DAZN Streaming in the U.S. and on Sky Sports in the U.K. with the possibly taking place in July in Saudi Arabia.

However, Pacquiao who fought his last two fights with Adrien Broner and Keith Thurman last year under the PBC promotional umbrella and through their pay-per-view, is a lucrative part of Al Haymon’s boxing promotion, currently.

Further, as we wrote last month when Pacquiao signed a management agreeement with Paradigm Sports out of Los Angeles, it fueled speculation that Pacquiao will end up fighting fellow Paradigm client, and UFC Superstar Champion, Conor McGregor, in a boxing match later this summer.

McGregor fought (and lost) a massive PPV fight in 2017 with Floyd Mayweather.

And, the CEO of his management team, Sean Gibbons told Dan Rafael of ESPN when the Paradigm deal was announced that they were, “1000% with PBC” and “ (Pacquiao) has existing fights left with PBC.”

So, which is it?

And, at the very minimum, is PBC able to counter or match any offer “Pac-man” receives?

Next, another key is: DAZN is not a pay per view arm like what PBC has with Fox and/or Showtime in the U.S. And, PPV with eight division world champ Pacquiao represents 10’s of millions of dollars more than a fight on a network or a streaming service.

So, from a pure financial standpoint, the potential of a Pacquiao-McGregor showdown would be two to three times more lucrative than any fight PBC, Matchroom or anyone else could come up with. That includes, Pacquiao fighting unified Welterweight Champion (and PBC fighter) unbeaten Errol Spence or even, WBO 147 lb. champion unbeaten Terence Crawford, who is promoted by Bob Arum and Top Rank Boxing.

And as for Garcia (now 40-1, 30 KOs), he did a one fight promotional deal with Matchroom and DAZN for this bout Saturday night with Vargas and is certainly looking for a lucrative important fight is his next one. But, he’s simply isn’t as big enough name for the pay-per-view market as those other champions mentioned above, much less McGregor.

It is believed that there will be an announcement soon on Pacquiao’s next opponent. This is especially, as he is now gone seven months without fighting, is 41 years of age and still doesn’t have an agreement for a fight this summer, yet.

Further complicating the timeline is that Pacquiao, who is part of the Filipino Senate, reportedly may have political aspirations to run for president of that country. And, that’s a process will begin in the summer of 2021 for the election in 2022.

Therefore, combined with his age, he may only have 2-3 fights remaining in his career.

Now, we wait for the truth on whether Hearn really has the right to make a Pacquiao fight, whether it’s something Pacquiao really would want it with Garcia (obviously Mikey does), and is there a better more lucrative fight out there with a bigger name?

The money component doesn’t seem to add it up.