Divide and conquer: Members of team pacquiao say michael koncz is making a power play

DIVIDE AND CONQUER: MEMBERS OF TEAM PACQUIAO SAY MICHAEL KONCZ IS MAKING A POWER PLAY By Ben Thompson | January 25, 2011 On the heels of our insightful interview with Timothy James, FightHype.com was contacted by several members of Team Pacquiao, who were all eager to voice their opinion and firsthand experiences with Manny Pacquiao's advisor, Michael Koncz. According to the multiple sources, who all chose to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs, Koncz has embarked on a mission to gain sole influence and control over the Filipino superstar. "He's kind of like an appendix in the human digestive tract. He sits there and does nothing and, you know, sometimes he'll cause you problems and actually he could kill you. So when an appendix explodes, I think they should take it out," one member would tell me bluntly. While it's no secret that Koncz has had both verbal and physical altercations with some of the more well-known members of Pacquiao's training staff, including Freddie Roach and Alex Ariza, this is the first time that other members of Team Pacquiao, many of who handle endorsements and business deals for the 8-division world champion, have spoken out about the man who's seemingly become the mouthpiece for the pound-for-pound champion. Although many of the anonymous sources have had their own experiences dealing with Koncz, they all seem to be in agreement with the idea that he's acting on behalf of Manny Pacquiao without the knowledge of the Congressman of Sarangani. Read the numerous statements below from the members of Team Pacquiao and judge for yourself as to whether or not Koncz is acting in the best interest of Manny Pacquiao. TEAM PACQUIAO MEMBER #1: "I met the rest of the team at the house. Everyone's got a bed, you know, it's all bunked up. Everyone sleeps in a room, Manny sleeps in the main room, and everyone just kinda like sleep nearby him. The first time I showed up in LA, Michael Koncz was like literally sleeping on the floor or on a couch in the room and nobody really seemed to want him to be around." "From what I've seen when it comes to Michael Koncz, he takes his time with certain things. Other members of Team Pacquiao, they work hard to actually find endorsement deals for Manny in the U.S. I mean, I know Michael Koncz is somewhat connected in Las Vegas, but other than that, really, he doesn't know anybody and he wants to kinda like stand as the middle man between all the endorsement deals for Manny." "A few of the people that brought endorsement deals to Manny, they found it maybe easier to talk to Michael Koncz because Michael is always around him. I'm talking million dollars deals going down the drain because Michael Koncz would either ruin it, not make the phone call on time, you know what I mean? I personally believe that Manny Pacquiao is very popular to this day. He makes anything dealing with the boxing world look good, but I personally think because of the way he's been handled, you know...it could be better. It could be better. I would actually point fingers at Michael Koncz for turning down quite a few of these endorsement deals and actually standing in the way of some people just because of a personal issue." "Working with him can turn a deal that would be going as fast as a tiger into moving as slow as slugs. Speaking with the lawyer , we can get sometihng signed by Manny and put together rather quickly because I mean, you know, dollars make sense and we can carry through something. But speaking with Michael Koncz, some things have taken years; literally, two years for certain deals to happen. It's kinda unfortunate." "You know the San Manuel Casino commercial that is being played in California right now? That one took about two years to put together. That could've been easily done. That could've been finished quickly back in '08 or '09, but the commercial finally came out in 2011. That took a little time; a lot of time." "Maybe that's just how he likes to ride. You know, like hey, let's start something and let's just kinda wait a little bit and then kinda forget about it and then, oh, we need money now so let's go do it. That concerns me that someone that thinks like that would be handling, or at least be having a hand in handling, the top boxer in the world's career." TEAM PACQUIAO MEMBER #2: "He likes the spotlight. When he finally got his chance to be interviewed on 24/7, the HBO show (laughing), he grabbed every little piece of that." "I do know that, for the most part, he claims he's paid by Manny on a lot of things, but when it comes to like...when he gets a chance to handle one of the endorsement deals and like there's a percentage involved, or something like that, paying out the person who handled the deal, he seems, I feel like, you know, he kinda tries to scrape a little bit off the top for himself, to be honest." "I personally believe he is making moves on Manny's behalf without Manny knowing; definitely!" "He's basically pissed off pretty much everyone in the camp at some point." "Once he gets to a certain position, he kinda likes to act like he's the king, you know what I mean?" "When Michael Koncz uses power, he uses it. When he needs something, he'll call you. He's the kinda guy that when he needs a favor from us, he'll talk to us, but when we need something from him, he's sitting on the highest pirch you can't touch. You could literally be dying on the street and he won't call you, but if he needs something, like the simplest thing, he'll call you and bug the **** out of you." "The Philippines doesn't like him. The country as a whole doesn't like him. He's not making millions of dollars for Manny. He's sitting there and seeping money in my opinion. And then when the people who are actually making dollars for Manny are trying to work on it, he stands in there way, which doesn't make any sense to me." "The way he got into Manny's inner circle is that he just stuck around. In Filipino culture, you know, when we get used to certain things, you kinda want to keep certain things that way. You know, when Manny goes to fight in Vegas, he'll stay at the Mandalay Bay, he'll ride over in a Top Rank Manny Pacquiao bus; it's a pilgrimage. They'll visit the same people they do before they go to a fight and they'll keep the same people around, you know what I mean? If new people stay around or keep coming by, you'll expect them to come back. That's why he ends up comping a lot of different people to come stay at the fight, even though they don't do anything, because he wants to keep a tradition. If you start a tradition, you stick with it and, you know, it's a pilgrimage that keeps going and Michael Koncz I think just kinda like stuck himself into that Filipino style pilgrimage of traveling around and handling the boxing career."