Arum: Waiter's Lawsuit Over May-Pac Money is Ridiculous

By Victor Salazar 

New York, NY - Manny Pacquiao has had an illustrious boxing career. He’s won numerous Fighter of The Year awards, has won world titles in many different weight classes, and has made plenty of money as a boxer. The icon of the Philippines says come April 9th in his 3rd fight with Tim Bradley, it will be the end of his fight career.

Throughout the entirety of his super stardom, Pacquiao has been promoted by Bob Arum and his company Top Rank, Inc. Though the promoter feels it won’t be his last fight, he says he’s not in the position to change Pacquiao’s mind should he decide to retire.

“I’m not going to lobby at all,” Arum told reporters at the final presser of Terence Crawford vs. Hank Lundy. “It’s not for me to do. If he wants to fight again, he can but he has a life outside of boxing as politician. That’s why I’m not saying it’s his last fight. If he feels he wants to continue he’ll continue. He’s saying now that it’s his last fight but I’m not saying it’s his last fight. If the guy wants to retire, let him retire.”

Arum co-promoted the highest grossing boxing fight in history when Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao squared off in the ring last May. Though it didn’t live up to expectations in the ring, it did well in all financial aspects amassing over 4.6 million pay-per-view buys.

TMZ reported that a waiter by the name of Gabriel Salvador is suing CBS, Bob Arum, Top Rank Inc., Pacquiao, and Roach for a promised percentage of the pay-per-view revenue.

Salvador was credited in the HBO feature ‘At Last” as bringing CBS Chairman Les Moonves and Freddie Roach together at his restaurant. The meeting was perceived to be the first flame in getting negotiations started for the joint pay-per-view for Mayweather-Pacquiao between CBS/Showtime and Time Warner/HBO. The event brought in over 430 million dollars in pay-per-view revenue.

He claims to have received a ringside seat, hotel accommodations and $10,000 in spending money for his role in the deal. According to Salvador, he was promised more and turned down a $50,000 settlement offer from Roach.

Arum refuted the waiter's claims.

“It’s ridiculous,” explained Arum. “What happened was, the waiter had Moonves talk to Freddie Roach. Why Freddie Roach? Because you guys were writing that my contract was up with Manny Pacquiao. In fact I had signed an extension for two years and Freddie told Moonves, 'don’t talk to me, talk to Bob.' I’ve known Moonves for ten to fifteen years already. So Moonves contacted me and we met at my house and that’s what started it. The waiter had nothing to do with it. I never met the waiter and Manny never met the waiter.”