After several weeks of promotional money issues, eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao will proceed into battle against 147 pound world title holder Lucas Matthysse on July 14, from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
According to reports, a total of $2 million was supposed to be wired by Pacquiao’s promotional company, MP Promotions, to Matthysse’s team, which also consisted of his promoter, Golden Boy Promotions. $500,000 was initially paid out after the fight was signed, but multiple deadlines for the remainder of the money to be paid were missed by MP Promotions — which had the event in serious jeopardy of potentially being cancelled.
Nevertheless, ESPN reported that Matthysse and his team would leave for Malaysia on Tuesday of this week after the additional funds cleared on Monday night.
“The money is in place. The money was supposed to be in an escrow account in the U.S. and now everything is good,” Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez, said to ESPN. “It’s customary practice when you are fighting overseas to have the money in an escrow account and now the money is there.”
Matthysse, 35, had been wanting to depart at least two weeks in advance of the matchup in order to become accustomed to the time change, so Monday’s deadline was seemingly the do-or-die moment of the event.
Lucas Matthysse, of Argentina, celebrates his win against Emanuel Taylor during their welterweight boxing match, Saturday, May 6, 2017, in Las Vegas. Photo: John Locher/Associated Press
Pacquiao’s (59-7-2, 38 KOs) company is primarily leading this event and not the Filipino Senator’s longtime promoter Top Rank. Bob Arum, who heads Top Rank, will instead only be handling the U.S. television deal and distribution for the fight, which is slated to air on an ESPN platform. A pay-per-view broadcast was planned for this fight, but MP Promotions’ money issues also stretched into that arena and caused that idea to be cancelled because of missed deadlines. The bout will likely land on regular ESPN or the newly created ESPN+ app, according to Arum.
The fight will emanate from the Axiata Arena and will be for Matthysse’s regular WBA welterweight world title, which he won back in January of this year from the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood, California.
“I knew the fight would happen so I didn’t really pay attention to what was going on,” Matthysse said. “I feel good and I am happy to be heading out there to Malaysia to defend my title.”
