Manny Pacquiao squares off against Brandon Rios at the Venetian Macao in Macau, China on Saturday night (it will be Sunday morning in Macau with a 13 hour time difference from New York). It marks Pacquiao’s first return to the ring since he was floored in December by Juan Manuel Marquez in their fourth battle as pros. The Rios’ fight marks another huge payday in the career of Pacman. He is guaranteed $11 million, plus another $7 million for his promotion company MP Promotions, according to Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who is promoting the Macau bout (Rios is guaranteed $4 million). Arum says Pacquiao could earn as much $30 million depending on the size of the pay-per-view audience. The huge payday will push Pacquiao’s career earnings to $300 million, including endorsements.
The monster paycheck is a relatively new phenomenon for the eight-division world champion, who turns 35 next month. Like most fighters, Pacquiao was paid little as he climbed the boxing ranks. His first PPV bout was against Erik Morales in 2005 and came 10 years after he turned pro. The Morales fight would mark Pacquiao’s last loss before his defeats to Marquez and Timothy Bradley last year. The Morales fight drew 350,000 PPV buys and Pacquiao was guaranteed $1.75 million with minimal upside on the PPV. He continued to rack up middling PPV numbers in the 350,000 range over the next three year, but his paychecks climbed into the $3-4 million range.

But like his chief rival Floyd Mayweather, Pacquiao’s star power and earnings exploded after a bout with Oscar De La Hoya. Pacquiao received a guarantee of $11 million and his cut of the 1.25 million PPV buys pushed his total earnings to $15 million for the December 2008 fight. It was more than triple his previous biggest payday and made Pacquiao an established PPV draw. It kicked off a series of payouts in the $15-20 million range, including his share of PPV revenue, against Rickey Hatton, Miguel Cotto, Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito. Those four fights averaged roughly one million PPV buys.

Pacquiao’s next two fights resulted in his biggest paydays and PPV audiences to date. In 2011, he defeated both Shane Mosley and Marquez (their third bout) and banked nearly $60 million from the fights, which both racked up more than 1.3 million PPV buys. Pacman also benefits from controlling the TV rights in the Philippines to his fights, which Arum relinquished to him around 2007. Pacquiao’s agreement with Solar Sports to televise his fights is worth roughly $1.5 million per bout. Pacquiao’s cumulative fight earnings and Solar Sports money during his career are north of $240 million.

Pacquiao, unlike Mayweather, has also embraced being a corporate pitchman. He has shilled for Nike, Sony, Hennessy, Monster energy drinks, Hewlett-Packard HPQ +0.92%, San Miguel Beer and others during his career. The deals earned Pacquiao more than $30 million by Forbes’ count.

The Rios fight will be Pacquiao’s 18th PPV bout. The first 17 generated 12 million buys and $650 million in revenue. His past nine PPV fights averaged a little over one million buys, and Arum says he is “optimistic” that the Rios fight will reach one million. It is unlikely Pacquiao will net Arum’s potential $30 million figure from the fight, as his only previous fight at that level was round three against Marquez that garnered 1.45 million PPV buys. But a total payday of at least $20 million will push Pacquiao’s total career earnings to $300 million, including endorsements.

For comparisons sake, Forbes estimates Mayweather’s total career earnings at more than $350 million. Pacquiao and Mayweather, forever joined at the hip but never in the ring together, had comparable career earnings before Mayweather’s blockbuster $80 million night against Canelo Alvarez. Mayweather is adding to his total much more quickly thanks to his six-fight Showtime deal and his ability to reap the benefits from promoting his own fights.

Arum originally hoped to broadcast Saturday’s fight on PPV to millions of iPads and mobile devices at $5 a pop in China since satellite and cable systems there are limited, but the infrastructure wasn’t in place. It would have resulted in an even bigger payday for Pacquiao if Arum pulled it off. Arum is hopeful for a PPV boxing event in China in June 2014. Pacquiao will still benefit from the Macau locale thanks to the tax advantages. The top rate in Macau is 12% versus the 39.6% federal rate in the U.S. Arum has said that Pacquiao might never fight in the U.S. again, but backed off that statement over the phone this week. “I expect Manny to fight twice next year, once in Macau and once in the U.S.,” says Arum. “It is important to have one fight in the U.S.”