The Shame of the Pacquaio-Hatton Debacle

It's a crying shame that the Pacquiao-Hatton fight is off, and it's obvious that what happened was not only a breakdown in communication.

It was a breakdown in imagination, and a breakdown in cross-cultural awareness.

Question: Why did Manny insist on a purse split that favored him 60-40?  Answer: He was quoted as saying he would be a "laughingstock" if, after beating ODH so decisively and otherwise owning the pound-for-pound title, he were to accept 50/50 with Hatton.

Manny's a Filipino, and I think his position and his reasons for it resonate with Filipinos in a way that is different from how it comes across to US or UK types.

To Manny's way of thinking, a 50/50 split would be an insulting humiliation that undermines his hard-won stature, not only for this deal but for future deals going forward, regardless of how this fight comes out.

He would be seen as a chump who doesn't know how to stand up for what he's earned.  That's why he became so stubborn about it.

He genuinely felt he was being played for a fool and that he would lose more than he gained, even though there is no equivalent payday from another fight.  In the end, he would rather get 60 percent of 5 million and preserve his honor and credibility going forward than take 50 percent of 20 million and brand himself as a loser.

Go figure, but it's how his sense of honor works and it's understandable to Filipinos, if not the rest of the world.  

And there's one other dimension -- one that's sensitive to write about but real. Manny's from the Philippines, a country that suffered first as a Spanish colony, then was America's colony  for half a century,  and to this day is a country which many Filipinos feel still lives "sa kuko ng agila" -- in the claws of the eagle, with the eagle being America--or by extension, the UK or any/all of the European countries.  While the rest of us are just looking at this as a dispute about money between two boxers and their camps -- on some level Manny had to feel like this was a situation in which he -- and by extension his beloved Philippines -- was being pushed around and treated like a "little brown brother" (America's term for Filipinos during colonial times)  by arrogant European/Americans.  Honor required that he say: "No."

(Disclosure: I'm not Filipino, but my wife is, and I spent 15 years there, I speak the language, and I think have a pretty solid understanding of the culture. That said -- I invite Pinoy fans out there to troubleshoot my assessment and correct any wrong impressions I may have.)

The sad part is that nobody trying to put the fight together seems to have really understood Manny's thought process. If they had, then with a little imagination, it should have been possible to come up with a solution that addressed Manny's sense of honor but also gave Hatton what he needed.  That's the art of deal-making, and there were no artists at work here.

For example...Question: What was Hatton's basis for wanting 50/50 with Manny, even though Manny is clearly at a higher level in the sport overall and thus "senior" to Hatton? Answer: UK fans, and specifically, UK Pay Per View.

Hatton felt that his ability to pull big PPV numbers from the UK justified 50/50.  But Manny's honor wouldn't allow that.  So they quibbled over the points: Hatton went to 52/48.   Manny's camp signaled he might be okay with 55/45 maybe was going to be okay with 55/45, but Hatton wouldn't budge from 52/48.

Hatton issued an ultimatum: sign by 6 p.m. on Jan. 21 or else...(another big mistake in dealing with Manny's sense of honor because it meant that if he signed it would be a capitulation.).  Predictably, it fell apart.

How might it have been saved?

Did anyone consider doing something a little more artful than an overall global percentage split?  Did anyone think of perhaps giving Hatton a larger share of the UK PPV revenues, in return for a smaller share of the "rest of the world" revenues?

Say, 55/45 favoring Hatton for the UK, but 60/40 Rest of the World favoring Manny? This would have allowed Manny's honor to have been satisfied, and Hatton would reap the reward from the specific market that he brings to the bout -- which is something Manny could concede without losing face.

There's another scenario that I'm pretty sure would have had a chance with Manny. Hatton was offering 52-48 but Manny said no. Why didn't Hatton say okay, let's make 47-43-10, with 10 going to the winner.

I realize this isn't done much in boxing these days, but why not?  That would present a challenge to Manny's honor that he would find hard to resist. 

In any event, it seems like we're done on this one, unless somebody manages to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

It's really a shame.  Woulda been a great one.