ABS-CBN No More For Pacquiao-Solis Fight
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Solar Sports partners with GMA-7 for Pacquiao-Solis bout Coverage deal sealed Thursday
MANILA, Philippines -- Switch to GMA-7 for the Manny Pacquiao-Jorge Solis showdown on April 14 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Details of the mega-buck deal and fight coverage will be finalized when top officials of the giant broadcast network and Solar Sports meet Thursday afternoon.
Solar Sports snatched the right to air Pacquiao’s defense of his WBC international super featherweight title against the unbeaten but unheralded Mexican with an irresistible $800,000 (about P39 million) offer.
In addition, Solar Sports will reportedly pay Pacquiao P20 million more for theater, cable and other ancillary rights in the Philippines.
The Pacquiao-Solis bout, which topbills a pay-per-view card promoted by Bob Arum, will be replayed on RPN-9, where Solar Sports is a major blocktimer.
The Solar Sports-GMA-7 partnership came as a surprise because Pacquiao’s earlier fights were shown over rival TV station ABS-CBN, including an exclusive coverage of the Filipino ring icon’s showdown with Mexican Oscar Larios at the Araneta Coliseum last year.
Pacquio won over Larios via unanimous decision.
Apparently, ABS-CBN did not bite Pacquiao’s proposal for a P40-million rights fee this time as Solis’ drawing power remains suspect despite his impressive 32-win (23 knockouts) two-draw slate.
Pacquiao’s charisma is reportedly working wonders at the tills, however, with tickets selling briskly for the bout to be staged at the Alamodome, which will be reconfigured to accommodate 20,000 fans.
Though Pacquiao has been tagged the overwhelming favorite to add the 5-foot-10 Solis to his growing list of Mexican victims that include such names as Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales, boxing pundits don’t rule out an upset.
They suspect Pacquiao won’t be at his best form for the fight owing to the congressional campaign he is inserting to his training schedule at the ABAP Gym in General Santos City.
Also cited was Pacquiao’s several postponement of his trip to the United States, where he is supposed to wind up his training at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, Pacquiao has reportedly picked Barrera to prevail over fellow Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in their “Moment of Truth” bout for the WBC super featherweight crown Sunday in Las Vegas.
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What happend ABS-CBN? Ahmm I think they have other priorities than that.
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