By Mark Vester
The legal war for the right to promote Manny Pacquiao is right around the corner. The Las Vegas Review Journal reports that Golden Boy Promotions is fully ready for an all-out court battle to challenge promoter Bob Arum's hold on Pacquiao.
Two months ago, Oscar De La Hoya let the press know that Pacquiao signed a seven-fight deal with his promotional company. This past Saturday night in Las Vegas, promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank, announced that Pacquiao had signed a four-year deal with his company, and returned the $500,000 signing bonus back to Golden Boy, which Golden Boy refused to accept.
Regardless of an ugly court battle, Arum plans to go forward with his plans to have Pacquiao fight in March, in Macau.
"There is no injunction to be had here and he's definitely fighting, no question about it," Arum said. "If they choose to sue for damages, be my guest. It's their right. Anybody can sue," Arum said.
Arum claims that Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions took advantage of Pacquiao, pressuring him into signing a contract.
"He flew 15 hours to get to the United States and (Schaefer and De La Hoya) grabbed him, took him to a restaurant and throw a contract in front of him," Arum said. "He said, 'I want to discuss it with my lawyer.' They knew he had a meeting the next day with Top Rank, the kid kept saying he wanted to talk to his lawyer and Oscar kept throwing it in front of him, throwing it in front of him, throwing it in front of him. They can be all high and mighty and say they do everything for the benefit of boxing, but they are creeps. Trust me, they are creeps."
Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer said there were no pressure tactics used, that Pacquiao would make more money under his company, and that Arum is only telling half-truths to the public.
"I think it was Arum's attorneys who tried to return it," Schaefer said. "Bob Arum is speaking all these half-truths. Manny was represented by an attorney (Jeng Gacal) and it was a carefully negotiated deal. We met and we talked, changes were made and the next day, they came to our office and he signed it."
The big issue in the situation is a stipulation in Pacquiao's contract with Arum, that precluded Pacquiao from signing with another promoter prior to the Morales bout and for a certain time frame afterwards.
Schaefer said that Arum's stipulation is standard in all of his contracts, and the same stipulation was in Pacquiao contract for the second bout with Morales, and that did not stop Pacquiao from signing with Gary Shaw.