Ricky Hatton's lawyer, Gareth Williams, has warned he will take legal action against Manny Pacquiao if the Filipino boxer reneges on a verbal contract to split the proceeds of their projected fight 50-50.

After reports emerged this week suggesting Pacquiao now wanted a 60-40 financial split, the highly-anticipated Las Vegas fight appeared to be in doubt. But Williams maintains the fighters agreed to share the purse equally and has not been made aware of any change in demands.

"We had all this before Christmas when they [the Pacquiao camp] were talking about different figures and we agreed a 50-50 split with them," Williams said. "So having agreed that with them, we're not going to change our mind."

After Pacquiao's lawyer claimed he would not accept a half share this week, Williams said: "No-one has relayed that to me. The only way that was relayed to me was when his lawyer went and stuck it on the internet.

"My own view is that if you want to alter a deal, you speak to the parties involved. You don't do it on the internet. It's up to him how he conducts his business but the simple fact is we've got a verbal agreement of 50-50 and that's as far as it goes.

"As far as I'm concerned I've got a firm contract that the fight is taking place. As and when I'm officially told that the contract has been breached, then I will do something about it legally.

"It's a verbal contract. As far as I'm concerned we have a contract that the fight will take place. Until such time that I'm officially told it's not taking place, then that's the position."

Williams claims Hatton has already conceded ground to make the fight happen. "We've been reasonable from day one," he said. "We wanted the fight to be in the UK but we've conceded to pressure from both American promoters and the American TV company that the fight should be outside of the UK.

"In an ideal world we'd rather fight later in May but again we've been told early May is the time to fight. So again, we've conceded that.

"The easiest thing in the world would have been to have gone along and started saying 'we're bringing more to the table' and posturing. But we didn't do that. We just said 'we recognise both parties bring an equal amount to the table, we recognise Manny is a great fighter, a great draw and is recognised as the pound-for-pound No 1 fighter and that is who Ricky wants to fight'.

"But we also recognise that Ricky Hatton, unlike any other boxer in the world who Pacquiao could fight, will bring UK TV money, an army of British fans and so in terms of where the money will come from, Ricky Hatton is bringing the lion's share."