By Ronnie Nathanielsz
International promoter Murad Muhammad today disclosed that the "initial pay-per-view figures" for the epic battle between Manny Pacquiao and Erik "El Terrible" Morales at the MGM Grand Garden Arena last March 19 "were better than those for the Morales-Marco Antonio Barrera fight" last November which was their third meeting and one that was described as a fight for the ages.
The Barrera-Morales showdown registered 325,000 buys on HBO pay-per-view while the first reports on the Pacquiao-Morales encounter indicated it "superceded" the all-Mexican battle with some 350,000 buys at a price of $44.95. Murad Muhammad who promoted the fight with Bob Arum of Top Rank as lead promoter said the updated report would be known either later today or sometime tomorrow.
In the meantime Pacquiao who is scheduled to leave Los Angeles tomorrow on a Philippine Airlines flight to Manila along with wife Jinkee, Filipino trainer Restituto "Buboy" Fernandez and longtime cornerman Lito Mondejar laughed off rumors that he had thrown the fight for $4 million because Las Vegas bookmakers would have taken a drubbing if Pacquiao had won because of the millions who had picked the flamboyant Filipino southpaw to win. Pacquiao said " I nearly died in the ring to try and win even with a nasty gash and people spread such ugly rumors. But never mind them, I know that I tried my best."
Pacquiao said he visited an eye specialist who was supposed to perform plastic surgery in order to ensure that no scar remains from the gash he suffered due to an accidental head-butt in the fight against Morales but that "everything was fine." Pacquiao's new manager Shelly Finkel told Manila Standard Today that the gash was "healing fine and they didn't have to do anything."
When asked about the escalating word war between promoter Murad Muhammad and trainer Freddie Roach, Finkel said "both of them should shut up" indicating that it was not doing the Pacquiao camp any good. Finkel suggested that Murad and Roach should "sit down and talk it over" and conceded that Roach should concentrate on training Pacquiao and "not getting into other things."
Finkel also revealed that there were problems regarding the tax liabilities of Pacquiao for the years 2001 and 2002. Finkel claimed the Internal Revenue Service informed him that "no taxes had been paid" and that as a result Pacquiao "lost all rights to make legitimate deductions" of expenses incurred for fights during that period. Finkel said that for the years 2003 and 2004 Pacquiao still had time "until April this year" to file the correct returns and include legitimate deductions. Manila Standard Today learned that Pacquiao's purse for his fights during the period 2001-2002 were deposited in a company formed by the son of business manager Rod Nazario, Roberto "Boying" Nazario and that Pacquiao was himself part of the company. Nazario claimed that the taxes due amounting to over $90,000 had been properly paid.
Pacquiao himself told Manila Standard Today when in training in Los Angeles prior to the fight that he had set up his own Emmanuel Pacquiao corporation in Las Vegas to handle his financial affairs beginning with the Morales fight. However, the IRS reportedly wondered why he had to establish a new company in Las Vegas when he already had one in Los Angeles, leading them to look into his tax liabilities. Senior Tax Specialist Cecile Glunt who is based in Las Vegas and has been handling the tax issues of boxers advised Rod Nazario and his son Roberto about the tax liabilities of Pacquiao as well as Nazario on his earnings in the US as business manager. Ms. Glunt disclosed that the IRS had discovered that several foreign fighters had not been paying the proper taxes and in many instances were not aware of what they were responsible for and she was trying to assist them since she was involved in Taxpayer Education and Communication.