By Ronnie Nathanielsz
WHEN Manny Pacquiao signed a seven-fight deal with Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, the latter himself first denied the story and then turned around and admitted that he had signed the Filipino by “basically out-thinking the competition.” It was clearly a dig at bitter rival Top Rank’s Bob Arum, who was also maneuvering to sign the devastating puncher from General Santos City in Mindanao. To sweeten the pot, Golden Boy gave Pacquiao a $300,000 signing bonus. Not much for a top pound-for-pound fighter like Pacquiao, lamented promoter and manager Rex “Wakee” Salud.
“It’s too little” he said.
Salud’s reaction was understandable, because, to his dismay, he was left out of the negotiations with Golden Boy and was even left behind when Pacquiao disappeared with celebrated trainer Freddie Roach, lawyer Jing Gacal and Joe Ramos, Pacquiao’s self-styled chief-of-staff, for a steak dinner with De la Hoya.
Manila Bulletin boxing writer Nick Giongco, who was also in Los Angeles, reportedly at the invitation of Pacquiao didn’t feel too bad that they didn’t take him along but said he felt “slighted” when they hid the signing from him.
De la Hoya himself revealed, as did his friend and Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez, that it was Pacquiao’s request to keep it (the signing) a secret until after the Nov. 18 Grand Finale rubber match with legendary Mexican Erik “El Terrible” Morales. Ostensibly, Pacquiao was worried that Arum, who is believed to wield considerable influence in Las Vegas boxing circles, would stack the deck against him. But the eminent lawyer and founding secretary-general of the World Boxing Council Rudy Salud said it was far-fetched and an affront to the integrity of the referee and judges and most of all the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Regrettably, Pacquiao’s so-called advisers failed to make him understand that such a significant signing could never be kept a secret, which is exactly what De la Hoya told him. Pacquiao apparently understood and De la Hoya confirmed the story, which was first published by well-known boxing writer Dan Rafael of ESPN. Denying the story or trying to hide it from media didn’t earn points for Pacquiao and in fact, reinforced the subsequent claim by Arum that the Pacman had violated his contract with Top Rank.
An angry Arum, beaten to the most exciting fighter in the world today by his arch-rival, threatened legal action against Pacquiao, Golden Boy, Roach and Gacal for tortuous interference in Top Rank’s contract with Pacquiao for the fight at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas. Arum claimed he had a specific provision, which made sure that Pacquiao could not sign with any other promoter until after the Morales fight. At the same time, Arum emphasized that Gacal had gone over the contract “with a fine-tooth comb.”
“I negotiated with him, specifically the paragraph in question,” Arum went on.
It was not the first time that Gacal, a comparatively unknown small-town lawyer from Pacquiao’s hometown of General Santos City, messed up. It can be recalled that he advised Pacquiao to sign a contract with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN for the Mano-A-Mano showdown against Oscar Larios at the Araneta Coliseum last July 2 for a whopping $4 million, which would include the purses of all the fighters, travel and accommodation and the cost of staging the event. Pacquiao’s newly formed MP Promotions was the certified promoter and his purse was listed at $1 million.
Pacquiao’s management team of Shelly Finkel and lawyers Nick Kahn and Keith Davidson promptly charged Gacal, Salud and Pacquiao himself with violation of their management contract, which is good until Jan. 31 next year. For one, Finkel et al. churned out the numbers and realized that Pacquiao and his MP Promotions were about to enjoy a windfall at their expense, contractually. Finkel was not ready to settle for his percentage of what was obviously more than a $1-million purse. In the end, we gather, they agreed on a percentage of $1.7 million. Besides, you didn’t have to be a lawyer to understand that Finkel had a solid case based on their management contract. But the astute manager, who has been in the sport for some 25 years, eventually withdrew the case “with prejudice,” which meant he couldn’t revive the charges at a later date. It was a calculated stroke to win Pacquiao over, especially since those around Pacquiao, including Gacal and Wakee Salud, were pushing him to junk Finkel, Kahn and Davidson and manage his own career.
These individuals obviously haven’t a clue about the business of boxing on an international level. While Salud certainly promotes fights in the Philippines and manages Filipino boxers, there is a world of difference in the way things are done in the United States. In their consuming desire to please Pacquiao, they told him he was perfectly capable of handling his own affairs. If his record of how he has handled his money and his life in general in the past couple of years was any indication, then Pacquiao is bound to have problems. It is impossible to imagine Pacquiao matching wits with top-flight promoters such as Arum, Don King and De la Hoya, who are steeped in the business. Clearly, he would need an American with influence and savvy to handle his affairs and unless Finkel has done him irreparable harm or cheated him, junking him like he did promoter Gary Shaw, would be an ill-advised.
The trouble with Pacquiao is he often listens to the advice of the last individual who whispered into his ear. He doesn’t seem to have the capacity to sift through the suggestions given him and to be able to figure out the good from the bad and the evil. Even in the case of promoter Murad Muhammad, Pacquiao was convinced particularly by trainer Freddie Roach, whom he trusts implicitly, that Muhammad was stealing his money. A couple of Filipino journalists, who lived off Pacquiao and several American boxing writers, who either disliked or despised Muhammad, did a demolition job to near perfection and in the process, launched a vilification campaign against the Pacman’s business manager Rod Nazario and even this writer, who was undeniably a friend of both Nazario and Muhammad.
It was comforting to learn from Golden Boy Promotions adviser and matchmaker Sampson Lewkowicz, who was Muhammad’s matchmaker for years and convinced him to sign Pacquiao, that Muhammad “never stole one centavo from Pacquiao.” Lewkowicz wasn’t particularly enamored with Muhammad, but at least the man had the decency to tell us what he believed was the truth about him. Lewkowicz made the statement to respected Cebu boxing patron Tony Aldeguer and myself during the signing of a promotional deal early this year with the ALA Gym and fighters Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista and Z “The Dream” Gorres.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Pacquiao placing his faith and trust in Roach, who helped bring him to where he is today and without a doubt, genuinely cares for him. In a typical example of the ugly side of boxing, rumors were circulated that Roach wanted to manage Pacquiao so he could take a total of 25 percent from his purse, once the deal with Finkel’s team lapsed. It would still save Pacquiao some big bucks. There were others, who warned that while Roach was a great trainer, he didn’t have much of an understanding about the role of a manager and the demands placed on one. Besides, it would create a conflict in his twin roles in terms of time and attention since Roach handles so many fighters.
That he saved flyweight contender Diosdado Gabi from the clutches of Michael Koncz and agreed to manage his career at least for the time being, stoked fears among one faction of Team Pacquiao that he would soon move in and manage the Filipino icon. Reports out of LA suggested that Koncz had decided to form a loose alliance with Salud and hopefully Gacal against the so-called “LA Boys,” which included Roach, Ramos and journalist Winchell Campos who, according to a plea filed with the District Attorney of Los Angeles, California by his estranged wife Rachel Cervantes Campos last June 2 , was allegedly earning $10,000 a month from Pacquiao for serving as his public relations officer.
Award-winning boxing writer and lawyer Thomas Hauser in an article published in Seconds Out.com reported that after the rematch with Moraes last January, documents showed that “translator and camp aide” Joe Ramos was paid $50,000. If accurate, the figures provide an indication of the influence if not the estimated worth of Campos and Ramos to Pacquiao.
Salud, in an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Standard Today earlier in the week, said he was certain that Arum would file a case and that he was staying behind in Los Angeles to give Pacquiao peace of mind, by appealing to Arum to keep Pacquiao out of any legal battle. In the emerging in-fighting, word leaked out that Salud and Koncz had promised to deliver Pacquiao and even former World Boxing Council super flyweight champion Gerry Peñalosa to Arum but failed and Salud was staying behind not so much to help Pacquiao but to repair his personal relations with Arum. Salud, who revealed that Gacal initially couldn’t be found, revealed that when he subsequently spoke to the lawyer, he claimed he had “told Manny not to sign the contract” with Golden Boy.
The esteemed lawyer Rudy Salud, founding secretary-general of the WBC laughed off Arum’s threats of legal action saying the American promoter, a lawyer, had “probably forgotten his law.” Salud said Pacquiao had every right to sign a promotional deal with Golden Boy, which comes into effect after the Nov. 18 showdown with Morales. He said signing a contract with Golden Boy “in no way can be construed as tortuous interference” with Arum’s contract for the November bout.
Salud told us that Arum was putting forth “a strained interpretation of the meaning of tortuous interference.” The former high-ranking WBC official warned Arum that should he file a case against Pacquiao, he could “open himself to a counter-suit by Pacquiao for harassment” especially at a crucial stage of the Pacman’s training for the fight with Morales, who is handled by Arum. Salud advised Pacquiao to “go ahead and concentrate on training and don’t worry because if there was really any tortuous interference, which I doubt, it was by Golden Boy and not Pacquiao.” However, Salud added, “there is no such thing, because Golden Boy hasn’t interfered, impaired or impeded the Nov. 18 contract.”
The Golden Boy himself called us Tuesday at 10:45 p.m., saying “the reason why I wanted to talk to you was to clear some issues up regarding Manny Pacquiao.” “My message to everyone in the Philippines and especially Manny Pacquiao is do not worry about anything, everything is okay. We have a legal contract with Manny Pacquiao. Bob Arum, who is threatening to sue Golden Boy, to sue Manny Pacquiao, that is him just being a bully like always,” said De la Hoya.
De la Hoya said he doesn’t like talking bad about people because that was not in his character. “But when Bob Arum is again being a bully, I have to stand up for what is right. The right thing is that me and Manny Pacquiao have a good contract and Manny does not have to worry about anything.”
He revealed that Arum sued him twice before and lost in court. De la Hoya said he and Pacquiao “as fighters stand up for each other and we believe what is right and we win. No problem. We are doing the right thing.”
De la Hoya said that should Arum sue Pacquiao and Golden Boy, he would also file a counter-suit for harassment as suggested by Salud. He felt that Arum was trying to destabilize and distract Pacquiao. De la Hoya said he would talk to Pacquiao later in the day and tell him “this is typical Bob Arum. I have been through this many, many times and what Manny has to do is train, stay focused and he knows that everything will be okay. He did nothing wrong and all he has to do is win the fight on Nov. 18 and we can move forward.”
De la Hoya, who is a big fisherman, said that when he catches a tuna or a marlin “they fight in the water and the last second when you are going to bring them up into the boat they fight even harder because they know they are going to die and going to be eaten. That’s the way I describe Arum. He’s fighting as hard as he can and when we are going to bring him on top of the boat, he’s going to fight even harder. So don’t worry about it.”
The Golden Boy of boxing said Pacquiao has a very good chance against Morales. Looking at the last fight they had when the Filipino knocked out Morales, De la Hoya said: “A well-trained, 100 percent Manny Pacquiao will knock out Morales again. But he has to be in good shape because Morales will be in good shape.”
De la Hoya said he was impressed with the progress made by Pacquiao who, he noted, “has been learning a lot.” He said he watched a video of the Pacquiao fight against Oscar Larios and he was “very, very impressed. He is learning good and progressing in a good way.”
But while Pacquiao, under the expert guidance of Roach is learning well in terms of his prowess as a fighter, there is much that he needs to learn in dealing with people outside the ring. His series of commercial endorsements may have earned him substantial income and his agents Jake Joson and Eric Pineda fat commissions, but he needs to be able to appreciate his stature and what products he should endorse in keeping with that stature. We have been told that San Miguel Corp., one of the country’s flagship corporations, is unhappy with the slew of products Pacquiao has endorsed because it indirectly diminishes the value of his endorsement of San Miguel products for which he earned millions.
Aside from this shortcomings, Pacquiao is earning a growing reputation for failure to keep important appointments in stark contrast to the time he finds for politicians, who fall all over each other to bask in his reflected glory, the cockfighting derbies and the dates with pool sharks and miscellaneous hustlers. In one instance, Pacquiao was scheduled to shoot a San Miguel Beer commercial with Kris Aquino and Efren “Bata” Reyes prior to his departure for Los Angeles. Not only did he fail to show up for the shoot, he didn’t even apologize for his transgression, visibly turning off key executives of San Miguel.
His penchant to frolic with showbiz types, his cameo appearances in concerts and his tendency to spend long hours and late nights away from home, have sometimes caused friction within his household. Many of his well-wishers are hoping that with the added responsibility of bringing up a daughter after Pacquiao and wife Jinkee were blessed with a baby girl to complement their two sons, he would settle down and realize that he cannot go on fighting forever. His best years may soon be upon him, which means it’s time to get serious and take charge of his affairs outside the ring, as well as he takes charge of his opponents inside it.
