By Edward Chaykovsky
Michael Koncz, adviser to eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao, is not worried about the mounting lawsuits in connection to his boxer's May 2nd showdown with Floyd Mawyeather Jr. Pacquiao lost a twelve round decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The controversy began at the post fight press conference, when Pacquiao revealed that he suffered a pre-fight injury to his right shoulder that affected his training camp, and that he further injured the shoulder during the fourth round of the fight and it hurt him to the throw punches with his right hand.
Countless fans, believing they were duped into spending money on a fight involving an injured fighter. More than 32 lawsuits have been filed in numerous states.
Koncz has no concerns, stating that Pacquiao had no legal obligation to inform the fans of his pre-fight injury.
“We’ve been sued in 32 different States. I’ve been sued, Manny has been sued, Top Rank has been sued, Floyd … everybody’s been sued,” said Koncz to Spin.ph.
“We’re not concerned about the lawsuits. It’s gonna take time, maybe a year or so. Our lawyers will take care of it and we don’t foresee any liability or any payment on our part. Before we came here, we had long discussions with our lawyers.”
“Those are privilege lawsuits, what we call ambulance-chaser lawyers, lawyers that smell money but don’t really know the law. They just try to hope that they could get something. It’s more of an inconvenience than anything. I don’t blame the public, it’s the lawyers that I blame."
"No athlete has any legal obligation to inform fans how their health is, there’s no such law."