IF AN on-going poll on the Manny Pacquiao Web site provides any indication of the preference of fight fans, then Oscar De La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions are the ones ranked at the top with more than a three-to-one margin over the rest.
As of this writing, De La Hoya and his outfit had garnered 68.0 percent of the votes, while Arum polled 20.6 percent with 11.4 percent, indicating they were not in favor of either organization.
The legal skirmish between Oscar De La Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions and Bob Arum?s Top Rank Promotions over the promotional rights for Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao may initially strike one as a clear indication of the tremendous popularity of Pacquiao and his drawing power. However, it also creates concern over what could well happen to his career should there be a protracted lawsuit.
Founding secretary general of the World Boxing Council lawyer Rudy Salud pointed out that while Pacquiao is not included in terms of damages that he has to pay if a judgment is issued against Arum and company, ?Manny is prejudiced by way of his next fight being held in abeyance.?
Bad for the Pacman
He opined that if De La Hoya and Arum don?t come together to solve their problems without having to go to court, it would ?impede the progress and career of Pacquiao and that would be bad for him.?
De La Hoya himself told Viva Sports/Standard Today in an overseas telephone call last Nov. 28 that he doesn?t want to see Pacquiao not fight for many months?a big possibility, although what the Filipino champ has going for him is that unlike in the Philippines, the law moves much faster in the US.
By Golden Boy?s own estimates, the earliest the dispute can be resolved is a month or a month and a half, which would take us into the end of December and if indeed a March 11 date has been set aside for a much-awaited rematch between Pacquiao and reigning World Boxing Council super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera, it would be cutting Pacquiao?s training time a little too thin. More than that is the fact that the promotion of the fight, no matter who figures in the main event, needs months of preparation.
De La Hoya is hoping that they could take care of the situation within that time.
And what really is the situation? From what we have been able to gather, De La Hoya and his Los Angeles-based company Golden Boy Promotions filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court against Bob Arum and his Top Rank Inc., whose offices are based in Las Vegas. The lawsuit accused Arum of tortuous interference and asked for unspecified damages and a court order that would prevent the American from promoting any of Pacquiao?s fights until the Filipino ring warrior fulfills the seven-fight contract he signed with Golden Boy sometime in mid-September.
Tortuous interference
Tortuous interference is defined as ?the unlawful interference into one?s contractual or business affairs. The elements of the tort of interference are: A valid contract between the plaintiff (Golden Boy) and a third person (Pacquiao) that confers upon plaintiff a contractual right against a third person; the defendant (Top Rank) knows of the contract; the defendant intentionally induces the third person not to perform the contract; the defendant acts without justification and the defendant?s conduct causes actual pecuniary harm to the plaintiff.?
In a statement initially sent to us by Golden Boy Promotions vice president and international matchmaker Eric Gomez, De La Hoya claimed that Golden Boy had a valid promotional deal with Pacquiao and they intend to enforce that contract.
?Pacquiao signed that contract in the presence of his attorney [Franklin Gacal] and that the contract was negotiated by his [Pacquiao?s] attorney and by Manny, and Manny accepted the sign on bonus,? Gomez emphasized.
Misguided Pacquiao
The statement said Golden Boy believed that Pacquiao had been misguided by certain members of his team and that he will ultimately realize that the contract was valid and offered him the best opportunities to further his career.
?All of us at Golden Boy Promotions are proud of Manny and are looking forward to work with him on his next seven fights,? Gomez ended.
On Nov. 22, just four days after Pacquiao destroyed Arum?s top money-making fighter Erik ?El Terrible? Morales in three rounds at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, the American promoter also went to court. He filed a suit against Golden Boy Promotions in Las Vegas, seeking a federal judge to make a declaratory judgment as to which promotional agreement with Pacquiao is valid?that of Top Rank or Golden Boy?
?I?m not seeking any damages yet. Right now we want the judge to decide which contract is valid,? Arum told Greg Leon of Boxing Talk.
Arum, in a show of confidence said: ?I believe this is an open-and-shut matter that won?t take long for the judge to rule on.?
In what may well be considered a counter-punch against Arum?s confidence, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer pointed to the fact that De La Hoya?s lawsuit came first, which meant Golden Boy ?beat him to the punch again just like we did by signing Manny Pacquiao first. I guess it?s tough to be second.?
Bizarre twist
In what may be regarded as a bizarre twist, promoter Gary Shaw, who at one time reportedly offered to testify for Golden Boy against Arum, had switched sides and was now supposedly willing to testify for Arum against Golden Boy. It will be recalled that Shaw handled two fights of Pacquiao and earned some $250,000 for the Pacquiao-Morales rematch from the Filipino, although it was Arum, who handled all the promotional work. When the fight was over, Pacquiao didn?t renew his promotional tie-up with Shaw, who then turned around and assailed Pacquiao for being disloyal.
De La Hoya made it clear in a conversation with us earlier this week that the seven-fight deal with him ?came into effect after the Morales fight.?
?Arum?s fight contract with Pacquiao doesn?t stipulate that you cannot sign with another promoter,? said De La Hoya, adding Pacquiao signed a fight contract with Arum ?but he did not sign a promotional contract.? He effectively took issue with Arum?s claim that Pacquiao signed a four-year contract with Top Rank.
There were attempts to modify the supposed Pacquiao-Arum deal by subsequent stories, indicating that the contract was with Manny Pacquiao Promotions, the promotional company of Pacquiao, which does make for an intriguing nuance. Unfortunately, as of this writing, we have not been able to obtain a copy of either of the two contracts. The executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission Keith Kizer informed us that ?promoters must file bout agreements with us not promotional agreements? and indicated that the commission did not have a copy of the four-year promotional agreement which Arum claimed he had with Pacquiao.
We then asked Kizer whether the commission noted a stipulation in the bout contract filed by Top Rank for Pacquiao-Morales III which, according to Arum, prohibited the Pacman from signing with any promoter until after the Nov. 18 fight. We are still awaiting his response because bout contracts are generally filled up in a standard form and any such clause or stipulation would probably have had to be in the form of an addendum.
Trouble brewing
The trouble actually began shortly after Pacquiao arrived in Los Angeles to begin training for the Grand Finale rubber match with Morales. For the first time, he was met at the airport by celebrated trainer Freddie Roach, who clearly enjoys both Pacquiao?s confidence and trust. It was Roach, who had earlier effectively rescued flyweight contender Diosdado Gabi from the clutches of boxing agent Michael Koncz and landed him a deal with Golden Boy.
Roach, along with Pacquiao?s Filipino lawyer Gacal and another trusted member of Team Pacquiao, Joe Ramos, drove to Morton?s steakhouse, where they met in a private room according to a report by Dan Rafael of ESPN, who spoke to De La Hoya about the meeting. De La Hoya was quoted as saying they had talked before going to dinner and the deal was apparently finalized over dinner before they parted ways at around 1:30 a.m.
Beaten to the draw
When Arum learned of the deal, he was dead set against having Golden Boy involved in the Nov. 18 fight in any way which he had every right to do. We learned later that Pacquiao received a signing bonus of $350,000 and an advance of $150,000 or a total of $500.000. Beaten to one of the most exciting fighters in the world today, Arum was obviously upset if not angry. To have De La Hoya pull one over him was bad enough, but we understand what made matters worse is that some of Pacquiao?s advisers had promised to deliver Pacquiao to him. There were insinuations that there was a consideration for this.
Arum insisted that there was a stipulation, which he puts into most of his fight contracts, that prohibited Pacquiao from signing with Golden Boy.
?When we sign somebody to a major promotional fight and we are paying them millions and millions of dollars, we don?t want them signing a deal with another promoter. We want the opportunity during the promotion to see if we can reach an agreement with the kid, his management team. And if we can?t, he is free to go,? The Los Angeles Daily News quoted Arum as saying.
Arum went one step further by stating that when somebody signs a contract like that, which Pacquiao signed for a major fight in which he earned a purse of $3 million in addition to a share of the pay-per-view rights, he felt that ?in effect, we own his services and his promotional loyalty, at least until after the fight.?
Arum put Gacal on the spot when he said the lawyer went through the specific provision prohibiting Pacquiao from signing with a promoter until after Nov. 18 ?with a fine tooth comb.? Yet, this same lawyer not only signed and initialed the contract with Golden Boy, he is also believed to have been consulted in connection with the subsequent four-year deal announced by Arum in the Nov. 18 post-fight press conference.
Arum, in an overseas telephone conversation with us on Oct. 27 at 2:15 a.m. (Manila time), said he was standing by an earlier statement that Pacquiao would continue to fight for him after the Morales rubber match, to which Golden Boy basically responded, no way.
?What will be after the fight will come clear after the fight,? said Arum, who added he didn?t wish to disturb the fighters and ?get caught up in a lot of issues that will become clear after the fight. Right now, it?s good for both guys to concentrate on the fight because it was going to be one of the great fights of all time.?
Gomez responded by saying that Golden Boy had Pacquiao signed to a legal, binding contract and Golden Boy felt they ?did nothing wrong.? He said their lawyers had looked over the contract and were very confident that Arum didn?t have a case. (To be continued)
