Pacquiao puts boxing on the front against UFC

London : When the numbers came in from Las Vegas last week, showing boxing has finally landed a left hook on the Ultimate Fighting Championship, they disguised a more complicated, and more interesting, story.

Clearly, what the 1.25 million pay-per-view hits for Manny Pacquiao versus Miguel Cotto underlined was that Manny is in a strong place to ask for the bigger cut when he meets Floyd Mayweather Jr in what will be the fight of the decade some time next year.

The Pacman has good ammunition: he out-rated Money's September comeback fight with Juan Manuel Mrquez by a cool quarter of a million; also, the $8.84 million (Dh32.5 million) gate was, according to USA Today, effectively $8 million bigger than what the comp-bloated UFC show returned the previous weekend.

Is this good for boxing? Yes and no. The Pacquiao-Mayweather deal just got messier. For all his great back story, for all his charisma and charm, Pacquiao is every bit as greedy as Mayweather. Ask Ricky Hatton (and actually he's no pushover, either).

There are weeks, probably months, of public squabbling to come. The stories will not be about the boxing merits of the fighters but the size of their bank accounts and egos. I think Pacquiao deserves a slightly bigger dividend, as he is creating the bigger buzz.

Boxing needs more than just Pacquiao and Mayweather Jr propping it up, though. David Haye has a platform now (as long as Don King stays out of his hair), and Showtime's Super Six has got off to a great start. In the UK, Prizefighter continues to be consistently entertaining, and there are some good young boxers coming through, in the amateurs leading up to the Olympics, as well as the pros.