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The Front Row with TiM DAHLBERG May 21, 2010

| May 21, 2010 9:00 PM

Manny Pacquiao was counting votes last week, and seemed happy.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. was counting money, and had to be equally happy.

"There's a reason they call him Money Mayweather," Mayweather's manager, Leonard Ellerbe, said. "He's winding up making $40 million for his night's work."

Indeed, Mayweather's mood was brightened by the unofficial tally showing 1.4 million people paid to watch him dominate Shane Mosley, which Ellerbe said meant his payday would be almost double the $22.5 million he was guaranteed for the fight.

If the numbers are accurate, it would mean that Mayweather has been in the two richest non-heavyweight pay-per-view fights ever. Just as important, it gives him pay-per-view bragging rights over Pacquiao and perhaps an upper hand if and when representatives of the two sit down to negotiate the fight all boxing fans really want.

That fight won't take place until at least November, because Pacquiao will be busy working for the government, as he won election to the Philippine Congress.

"He was floating," promoter Bob Arum said from Manilla. "He was happier than I've seen him even when he won his biggest fights."

Just as elections in the Philippines can be nefarious affairs, though, so too will be any negotiations for a Pacman-Money fight. Though the common sense prediction is that there is way too much money to be made for the fight not to happen, this is boxing, where common sense often fails to prevail.

Pacquiao's trainer, Freddie Roach, tried to get things going even as his boss was wrapping up his campaign, predicting in New York that talks would begin soon on the megafight.

"I think the fight will happen," Roach told The Associated Press.

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org.