By Rick Reeno

BoxingScene.com spoke with Michael Koncz, adviser to WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, who denied multiple internet reports which claim he was fired by the Filipino superstar. Additionally, BoxingScene spoke with a source who directly brought the internet reports to Pacquiao's attention, and the Filipino boxer said the information being reported is "not true."

"I think these reports continue to come out when I'm not with Manny. In my conversation with him, I asked 'do I have a job?' '[And he said] why do you ask me that?' [And I said] because 'it's all over the internet that I was fired.' And he said 'it's not true.' Then we joked around a little bit and I told him that 'when I'm away from you for an extended period of time, these things happen,'" Koncz said to BoxingScene.com.

"I reminded him that this same thing happened around the time of the De La Hoya fight. And he told me [back then] not to pay attention to what's on the internet and what other people say. He said 'I will tell you personally when I don't need you anymore or don't want you anymore.'

"It's very simple, people try to put wedge between Manny and I, because I think they resent that Manny trusts someone not of his nationality as much as he trusts me, and secondly they know that I watch very tightly everything around Manny, although Manny knows most of everything, to make sure that people don't take undue advantage of him. I think a lot of people resent that. It's harder for people now to take advantage of Manny for their own benefit and I think a lot of people resent that. And Manny has to get a lot of credit for that as well, because with age he's become so much wiser. He's always been an intelligent person. And I think people, that's the biggest misconception they have of Manny, they underestimate his intelligence."