By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Pound for pound king Manny Pacquiao’s top-notch lawyer, David Marroso, says they will respond to the latest motion filed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in connection with the defamation case filed against him by Pacquiao “in due course.”
Marroso told BoxingScene.com/Manila Standard “We have provided Mayweather with results of drug tests ordered by the athletic commissions with jurisdiction over Mr. Pacquiao's fights. Every test is absolutely clean. There is no presence of any banned substance whatsoever.”
The lawyer was responding to a motion recently filed by Mayweather's legal team. According to Scott Shaffer of BoxingTalk, Mayweather asked the court to force Pacquiao to provide his medical records and contact information for every doctor who had treated him so that Mayweather can see if there is any evidence that Pacquiao ever took “steroids or other illegal performance enhancers.”
Mayweather is hoping that should the medical evidence being sought by him show that Pacquiao used illegal performance enhancing drugs - it would scuttle the defamation case since the truth is considered the best defense against defamation.
BoxingTalk reported that in court filings Mayweather’s attorneys wrote, "To date Pacquiao’s responses (in providing his medical records) have been grossly deficient.”
They claimed that Pacquiao’s counsel “have only disclosed the names of two of Pacquiao’s doctors. A plastic surgeon in the US and a gastroenterologist in the Philippines. In addition, Pacquiao’s counsel have refused requests to execute a release and produce the vast majority of the medical and physical examination records solicited.”
Mayweather’s lawyers referred to the “limited number of drug testing results provided” and insisted “that information is insufficient.”
Mayweather, who begins serving a 90 day prison term at the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas on January 6, had earlier submitted his deposition after a warning from the judge following several delays.
Pacquiao himself was supposed to give his deposition this week in Los Angeles where he was planning a vacation with his family, which he canceled.
Pacquiao's adviser Michael Koncz told BoxingScene/Manila Standard from Los Angeles that “because of Floyd’s pending incarceration the lawyer suggested that we postpone giving the deposition right now which I did.”
