The gate from last weekend's showdown between Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto— which will air on HBO Saturday (10 p.m. ET/PT) — was $8.84, slightly ahead of the $8.83 million generated in Pacquiao's previous fight with Ricky Hatton, with 15,470 tickets sold.

That's 3,500 more tickets sold and $2 million more than what Mayweather's comeback from a near two-year layoff drew when he fought Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in September on Mexican independence weekend.

No tickets were sold beneath face value for Pacquiao-Cotto. For Mayweather's bout, 94 tickets were sold at 50% discount and 895 were comps, or giveaways while just 46 comps were doled out for Pacquiao-Cotto.

Pacquiao, who began his career at 106 pounds, won a major belt in his seventh different weight class and captured a share of the lineal welterweight championship with a 12th-round stoppage of Cotto. Mayweather is the division's former champion.

This week, Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions — on behalf of Mayweather — was expected to enter negotiations with Top Rank chairman Bob Arum in hopes of reaching a deal for Pacquiao-Mayweather in 2010. The two haven't opened talks yet, but Friday Top Rank spokesman Lee Samuels confirmed that Mayweather has designated Schaefer as his chief negotiator.

A major sticking point to making the bout will be the purse split. Based on the numbers, Pacquiao appears to have the leverage because he's been the bigger draw this year and generated 1.25 million pay-per-view buys against Cotto which makes it the year's No. 1 PPV show.

Pacquiao was to earn at least $20 million for the fight with Cotto, and the Puerto Rican at least $12.5 million if it reached one million PPV buys.

Mayweather-Marquez had been the leading pay-per-view show of 2009 with one million buys, surpassing the 850,000 that Pacquiao drew when he fought Hatton on May 2.

"Richard and I have put a lot of big fights together," said Arum, the last being the Pacquiao-Hatton fight, earlier this week. "I find him a good person to negotiate with because we negotiate seriously. Sometimes you can't make a deal because you're so far apart. But the chances of making a deal is great if you're negotiating seriously."

Enlarge By Steve Marcus, Reuters Manny Pacquiao, right, is sent to a neutral corner by referee Kenny Bayless after knocking down Miguel Cotto in the fourth round of their WBO welterweight title fight in Las Vegas, won by Pacquiao. The bout outsold September's Floyd Mayweather-Juan Manuel Marquez fight in September. Both events were at the MGM Grand Garden Arena