Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao will earn a cool $18 million for fighting Brandon Rios in Mac

Former pound-for-pound king claimant Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao will earn a cool $18 million for fighting Brandon Rios in Macau on November 24, according to his promoter Bob Arum.

ABS-CBN.com quoted Arum as saying that "we hope at the end of the day, he (Manny) will do well enough so that he will get around $30 million."

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The guaranteed purse of Pacquiao is definitely paltry when compared to the staggering $41 million paycheck earned by his biggest rival, the universally recognized pound-for-pound best fighter, Floyd Mayweather, Jr., for battling Mexico's Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Mayweather pounded the 23-year old upstart to a majority decision last Saturday.

According to Arum, he has warned the fighting congressman from the Philippines not to underestimate the skills of the younger Rios. Arum said that Pacquiao should not look ahead to his next fight and instead focus on Rios, a dangerous 27-year old former WBA lightweight champion.

The domination of Mayweather in recent years and the shocking consecutive losses of Pacquiao last year have shattered the hopes of many boxing fans wanting to see the two biggest superstars in the sport collide in the ring.

The ABS-CBN report also quoted veteran boxing writer Kevin Iole as saying that he doesn't see Pacquiao and Mayweather clashing in the ring, and the fight would have been a 'good one' had it transpired back in 2009-2010.

In his column for Yahoo! Sports, however, Iole wrote that Mayweather has still not completely ruled out the possibility of fighting Pacquiao.

Pacquiao, the only boxer to win titles in eight different weight divisions, is coming off a shocking knockout to Mexican nemesis Juan Manuel Marquez last year.