Manny Pacquiao: Floyd Mayweather Fight Hinges on Success of Timothy Bradley Bout

As far as anyone can tell, the only thing standing between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. at this point, aside from Money May's current stint in prison, is...well, money.

Which is a significant step forward, considering the obstacles that have come between these two giants of boxing, and could be even less of an impediment depending on the success of Pac-Man's fight with Timothy Bradley on Saturday.

Not that beating Bradley would prove anything further about Pacquiao's ability to compete with Mayweather. Rather, if Pacquiao can rack up a boatload of pay-per-view buys amidst an impressive financial windfall, he and his handlers may have enough leverage to squeeze Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions for the 50-50 revenue split that they've been angling for.

According to Pacquiao himself and corroborated by MLive.com, both sides had agreed to such a division of the pot during early negotiations. Floyd and his camp have since been reluctant to discuss an even split, though, claiming that Mayweather deserves a bigger cut because his profile has grown.

As if Pacquiao's hasn't right along with it. Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated noted last month that Pacquiao's last fight, against Juan Manuel Marquez back in November, generated 1.25 million PPV buys, compared to 1.25 million for Mayweather-Ortiz last September and 1.5 million for Mayweather-Cotto on Cinco de Mayo.

In other words, Pac-Man isn't all that far off from rivaling Money May's numbers. If he does this weekend (with Desert Storm's help), then Bob Arum and Top Rank will have the proverbial ammunition they need to force Mayweather and his people into yet another round of serious "Fight of the Century" talks.

With a 50-50 split firmly on the table.

Not that boxing fans care how the money is divvied up, or even should, so long as they get the fight they want to see.

If enough of them tune in for Pacquiao-Bradley, they just might.

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