By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Golden Boy promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says he is “tired to wait around” and has “finalized today” the fight between WBC super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez which is expected to take place on March 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Schaefer informed Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today about the fight which Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum had said would never happen because Barrera never wanted to fight Marquez . Schaefer said it proved that Arum was “wrong again..”
Schaefer said it was sad to see “all these people feeding Manny (Pacquiao) wrong information” adding he had no doubt that one day Manny will “wake up and realize on how he has been misled.”
The Golden Boy Promotions top executive had earlier made an offer to Pacquiao for a rematch with Barrera on a fifty-fifty split while Pacquiao’s manager Shelly Finkel who also has been at odds with Arum said he could guarantee Pacquiao $5 million if he fought Barrera.
Pacquiao, in a brief telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Tuesday afternoon responded to the Finkel offer saying “I like it. That’s good” but was, in the words of Finkel, “playing games with us.”
Arum had earlier rejected the Golden Boy 50-50 offer saying it “wont fly” and was too little for Pacquiao. However Schaefer’s response was that Arum “has nothing to turn down since he has no valid promotional rights on Manny.”
The lawyer of Pacquiao, Franklin “Jing” Gacal who Pacquiao himself publicly pointed to as the one who made the mistake of having him sign the De La Hoya contract in mid-September and later sign the Top Rank deal issued a statement Tuesday saying “Manny has decided he is going to stay with Top Rank as his partner.” Gacal also announced that Top Rank was set to formally make an offer for a Barrera rematch through Golden Boy and set a January 12 deadline.
