Boxing hero Manny Pacquiao is top tax-payer in Philippines.

Boxing hero Manny Pacquiao, who faces his biggest fight against unbeaten American Floyd Mayweather, already holds top spot as the number one taxpayer in the Philippines, government records showed Saturday.

A list of top individual tax-payers for 2013, posted on the Bureau of Internal Revenue website, put the boxer-turned-congressman at number one with 163.84 million pesos ($3.72 million) in taxes paid.

This was about 64 percent higher than the second-highest taxpayer.

Internal revenue chief Kim Henares confirmed that Pacquiao topped the list but stressed that he still had a case pending over alleged non-payment of taxes earlier.

Although hailed as a national hero for his boxing feats, Pacquiao has run afoul of tax officials before and is embroiled in a dispute with the revenue bureau saying he owed at least 2.2 billion pesos in unpaid taxes for 2008 and 2009.

"It (the case) is still ongoing. No, he has not settled. Being a top tax-payer... does not mean he paid the correct taxes. The two (issues) are not synonymous," Henares said in a statement to AFP.

The boxer has previously insisted he paid the 2008 and 2009 taxes in the United States, so did not need to do so in the Philippines because the two countries have an agreement allowing their citizens to avoid double taxation.

The tax office alleges Pacquiao failed to provide documents proving his US payments and that he may still owe some money in the Philippines where there is a higher rate of taxation.

Pacquiao, 36, a champion in eight divisions, has parlayed his sports fame into a fortune in commercial endorsements, a showbiz career and even election to Congress.

This earned him a spot in Forbes magazine's list as the 11th highest-paid athlete in 2014, although still behind his rival Mayweather who was number one on the list that year.

The two rivals for the crown of best boxer of their generation are due to meet in Las Vegas on May 2 in a match that is expected to shatter box office records.

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Mayweather-Pacquiao revenue expected to reach $400M

Record-shattering revenue totals for Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming boxing showdown with unbeaten Floyd Mayweather could surpass $400 million, promoter Bob Arum told ESPN in a report Monday on the sports network’s website.

The welterweight title unification fight May 2 in Las Vegas will generate $74 million from just over 15,000 tickets at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Pacquiao promoter Arum told ESPN, flattening the old mark of just over $20 million for Mayweather’s 2013 fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the same venue.

Promoters first aimed for $40 million, then boosted the ticket prices from $1,000 to $1,500 at the low end and $5,000 to $7,500 for the best seats due to huge demand for the ducats, Arum said.

But organizers have now shuffled the number of seats in various price ranges and boosted top seats to $10,000 to raise the live gate total from $50 million to $74 million.

“It’s crazy, but it is what it is,” Arum told ESPN. “It’s amazing.”

And few if any seats will be available for public sale, with promoters, telecasters HBO and Showtime, the fighters and the host venue each taking a share of the tickets.

“We’ll probably have a handful of tickets that will go on sale to the public next week,” Arum said. “It’s mania.”

There will be only about 1,100 seats at $10,000, none of them for public sale, according to the report.

Boxing’s record for pay-per-view purchases is the 2.4 million buys from Mayweather’s 2007 split-decision victory over Oscar de la Hoya, but with Mayweather-Pacquiao having taken more than five years to come together with the planet’s top pound-for-pound fighters, expectations of 3 million pay-per-view buys at about $100 each could bring $300 million in sales for US, Puerto Rican and Canadian markets alone.

“We wouldn’t have gotten a fraction of these numbers if we made the fight five years ago,” Arum said. “It turned out that we’re doing the fight at the right time, I guess, not that we’re geniuses for waiting this long.”

Global rights are expected to ring up another $35 million, with a record $10 million already spent for rights in the Philippines, where Pacquiao is a Congressman as well as an iconic figure.

“Between the gate, the foreign television sales and the closed circuit, which we can’t even calculate yet, you’re looking at over $120 million. And that’s before one pay-per-view has been sold in the US,” Arum told ESPN.

Arum said Tecate beer, a long-time Pacquiao sponsor, won title sponsor rights with a $5.6 million bid, $400,000 more than rival Corona, a long-time backer of Mayweather.

“We’ve never see anything like that on a beer sponsor,” Arum said. “Both companies were after it. It’s a huge number.”

Mayweather’s camp receives 60 percent of the revenue with Pacquiao’s side taking home 40 percent.

Arum said the contract gives Pacquiao the choice of who sings his homeland’s national anthem before the bout while Mayweather decides who will sing “The Star Spangled Banner.”

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Beau Belga: A Physical, Emotional and Taunt Fest PBA Game.

On sheer guts, the Elasto Painters dug out of an eight-point hole in the homestretch and completed a stirring victory that had them tying the Purefoods Star Hotshots and the Talk n Text Tropang Texters at second at 6-3. Rebounding from a 114-129 loss to San Miguel Beer Friday, Rain or Shine takes a shot at the Top Two and a twice-to-beat bonus in the quarterfinals in trying to sweep its last two games in the elims versus Blackwater and Kia. Rain or Shine regained a crack at the Top Two as it frustrated Ginebra by blanking the Kings in the last 4:22 of their highly charged duel.

It was an extra physical and emotional match marked by numerous technical infractions and two fans being escorted out of the venue after being caught throwing plastic bottles on the floor in the heat of one revved-up action in the last quarter.

Usually thriving in this kind of game, the Kings wilted under pressure and went down to a four-team logjam at fifth place with the GlobalPort Batang Pier, the Barako Bull Energy and the Kia Carnival at 4-5. The Kings were ahead at 79-71 before running into a maze of errors and misses in the face of the E-Painters’ super tight defense.

LA Tenorio missed a wide-open layup then Mike Dunigan was caught stepping on the baseline, starting the Kings’ collapse that was much like their loss to the NLEX Road Warriors the last time out. With one error after another, Ginebra fell behind by three at 79-82 with 8.6 seconds left to play. The Kings had one last chance to force overtime but the E-Painters had one last defensive gem with Beau Belga blocking Mac Baracael’s three-point try at the buzzer.

Booed by the Ginebra crowd practically all throughout the match, Belga scored 11 points, including two free throws that touched off Rain or Shine’s key 11-to-nothing finish. Wayne Chism followed up a 50-point game with 28 points and 17 rebounds while Paul Lee had his own double-double effort with 18 markers and 11 boards.

Mike Dunigan led the losing team with 24 points. Greg Slaughter had 10 points and 10 rebounds in the first half. Curiously, Ginebra coach Ato Agustin sat him out most of the second half. Scoreless in the first three quarters, Mark Caguioa found his range in the payoff period and helped Ginebra regained command, 79-71, entering the last four minutes of the game.

The Kings, however, ran out of gas at winning time.

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Floyd Mayweather v Manny Pacquiao fight will adhere to US drug protocols.

Floyd Mayweather’s fight against Manny Pacquiao on 2 May is to be conducted under the US Anti-Doping Agency testing programme.

The welterweight rivals, whose showdown is set to be the richest in history, with an estimated shared purse of $250,000,000 (£167.4m), have agreed to observe the rules established under the World Anti-Doping code, the World Anti-Doping Agency prohibited list and the Usada protocol for Olympic and Paralympic movement testing.

Both fighters have agreed to unannounced blood and urine testing without reservation and will be tested out of competition before the fight and in competition after the fight.

Some of the banned substances that will be tested for at the Wada-accredited laboratory are growth hormone (HGH), erythropoietin (EPO) and the use of carbon isotope ratio (CIR).

“It’s a strong statement of the importance of clean and safe competition to have these two fighters voluntarily agree to have a Wada level anti-doping program implemented for this fight,” said the Usada chief executive, Travis Tygart.

“We commend them for their stance on clean sport and the message it sends to all those who want to compete clean at the highest levels of all sport.”

Plans for the duo to fight five years ago when at the peak of their powers were abandoned after Pacquiao refused to participate in blood testing at Mayweather’s insistence.

The two went head to head for the first and only time before the fight at the MGM Grand at a press conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday. No publicity tour has been scheduled and they will not meet again until fight week.

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