By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao buckled down to talking business one day after his lavish 28th birthday celebration, his daughter’s christening and the blessing of his mansion in General Santos City but in the end decided to adopt a wait and see attitude.
 
Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today learned that Pacquiao met yesterday afternoon with the head of his management team Shelly Finkel, celebrated trainer Freddie Roach and Joe Ramos and after discussing his contractual situation and his future fights, Pacquiao decided not to make any decision at this time.
 
Finkel who was returning to the US last night told Viva Sports/ Manila Standard Today said that all Pacquiao “wanted to do was to enjoy his birthday which we all did” and that they would let him know what decisions he has made sometime this week and “at that point I will know what to do.”
 
Finkel said he thinks Pacquiao “is digesting what everyone’s told him. He knows what to do and I think he’ll make the right decision.” Finkel was confident he could handle the contractual problems of Pacquiao “if he does what he needs to do” which obviously meant renewing his contract with Finkel.    
 
Finkel and Roach had earlier met with Pacquiao’s lawyer Franklin “Jing” Gacal and Rex “Wakee” Salud who appeared to be back in Pacquiao’s inner circle and reportedly discussed the legal battle between Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Bob Arum’s Top Rank and a possible fight with WBC super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera in March. They also discussed the possible renewal of Finkel’s contract which expires on January 31, 2007.
 
Finkel indicated he was very confident that Top Rank had no chance to win the case for the right to promote Pacquiao’s fight and said he could arrange the Barrera fight despite the pending lawsuits. In fact Finkel is reported to have asked Gacal and Salud to go to Los Angeles on January 2 to meet with Goldem Boy CEO Richard Schaefer.
 
However it seems that with Pacquiao’s decision to wait and see what will happen in the legal battle between Golden Boy and Top Rank, everything is put on hold.
 
Viva Sports/Manila Standard learned that as a result Golden Boy will move to finalize a title fight between Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez on March 11 which was a date set aside for the much awaited rematch between Pacquiao and Barrera.
 
Meantime in an on-going poll on the Manny Pacquiao website, 74.7 percent have shown their preference for Barrera as his next opponent with 11.6 percent picking Marquez  while 70 percent have indicated they prefer that Pacquiao goes with Golden Boy with 19.1 percent indicating their choice was Top Rank.