By Ronnie Nathanielsz

MANNY Pacquiao yesterday confirmed that his May 2 showdown with Briton Ricky Hatton at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas is on, but refused to provide details of the deal.

The fight had been called on and off as a result of disagreements over the prize money and the split of the revenue.

Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s best offer to Pacquiao was a $12-million guarantee and a 52-48 revenue split. The Pacman had turned that down while pushing for a $13-million guarantee.

Pacquiao is in Manila along with adviser Rex “Wakee” Salud, who first broke the news that the Filipino champ had come to terms with Arum.

Pacquiao explained the delay over the telephone.

“I had to think first before making any decision,” he said.

“It was not an easy decision to make. I didn’t want to get screwed.”

Pacquiao said he would start light training in the middle of February and begin heavy training at his trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym as earlier planned on March 1.

The boxing icon said the battle with Hatton would be a very good fight.

“It will be better than my fight against [Oscar] de la Hoya in Las Vegas last Dec. 6,” he said. De la Hoya quit at the end of the eighth round after taking a bad beating.

Arum announced shortly before noon yesterday that Pacquiao had sent by fax a signed contract to his office, and that the decision made him feel good.

He said several American boxing writers were in his office, but they told him they would believe the fight was on only when they saw a signed contract.

“All’s well that ends well,” Arum said.

“Everybody is happy,” he said, adding his happiness stemmed from the fact that, financially, “the deal made sense.”

But Arum said his plan to fly to Manila next week had been pushed back.

“I am not coming over right away,” he said.

“I’ll come over when we are ready to announce the March 15 card.”

Arum was referring to the card being held in partnership between Top Rank and Solar Sports featuring world flyweight champion Nonito Donaire, who will defend his title against former world light flyweight titlist Eric Ortiz and former light flyweight champion Brian Viloria, who will take on International Boxing Federation champion Ulises Solis at the Araneta Coliseum.

Arum said the Hatton people were on board, and the promotional tour in London and Manchester, England, would take place in the last week of February. Other planned stops would be in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Roach, who initially planned to fly to Manila to convince Pacquiao to go ahead with the fight, said he was happy that it was on.

Roach said Hatton was strong but had a tendency to throw a couple of punches and then hold.

He would find a way to counter that, but he had no doubt Pacquiao would prevail as he did over De la Hoya.

Pacquiao is ranked no. 1 in the light welterweight division. He is one of a few boxers—and the first Asian—to win world championships in four divisions: the World Boxing Council flyweight, International Boxing Federation super bantamweight, WBC super featherweight, and WBC lightweight titles.

The 30-year-old pride of General Santos City boasts a ring record of 48 wins, 36 knockouts, three losses and two draws, but his victories over Mexicans Erik Morales, Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez, Mexican-American David Diaz, and the legendary De la Hoya have cemented his stature as the best boxer in the world for two consecutive years now.

Hatton, 30, has been a two-time International Boxing Federation welterweight champion and former World Boxing Association super lightweight and welterweight world champion. He was also the 2005 Fighter of the Year of Ring Magazine, regarded as the bible of boxing.

Hatton has won all but one of his professional fights, with his only setback coming at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr., for a ring record of 45 wins of which 32 were knockouts.

In June 2007, he defended the IBO junior welterweight world title with a fourth-round stoppage of former world lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo.

On Jan. 1, Hatton was recognized by the Queen of England in the annual New Year’s honors list, and was accepted as a Member of the British Empire in a ceremony at the Buckingham Palace. He is now known as Ricky Hatton, MBE.

Meanwhile, two international boxing writers, James Blears of Boxing Scene, who is also a TV correspondent based in Mexico City, and Kieran Mulvaney, who writes for ESPN and is a correspondent of Reuters news agency, are both pleased that the megabuck showdown is finally on.

Blears said a lot of people thought Pacquiao was being too greedy, but he disagreed.

“That’s not my view. His effort, ability and star quality have got him to this earning level,” Blears told Standard Today.

“That said, it’s the largest purse offer of his career and boxing is not a profession known for longevity.”

Blears feels that Pacquiao’s original 60-40 demand was “a hangover from his fight against Oscar. Manny was the star in the ascendancy and Oscar was on the wane, and yet Oscar received the lion’s share, which must have rankled a good deal.

“At this time, Manny is, pound for pound, the best fighter in the world. In that respect, he’s ahead of Ricky,” Blears said.

“But Ricky’s fan base possesses vast pay-per-view buying power, and that’s going to bring the money to the table.”

Mulvaney said that when word first surfaced that Pacquiao was unhappy with 50-50, “I thought, fair enough. Manny is probably the biggest global star in boxing right now. He’s the draw. He should get more.

“But the fact that he was guaranteed a portion of Hatton’s UK pay-per-view made me realize that Pacquiao was getting a better deal than I had initially thought. And when Hatton yielded to 52-48, it was the perfect opportunity to accept the compromise and move on.”