That’s how ex-manager describes Pacquiao’s coming fight with Korean
A SHAME.
That’s what New York-based boxing manager Shelly Finkel said upon learning that Filipino boxing star Manny Pacquiao is going to face Korean Injin Chi on April 28 in Macau.
“I have read that Manny is going to fight Injin Chi,” Finkel said in an e-mail message yesterday.
“What a shame. I guess that is what it comes down to, an old featherweight for the right price.”
Finkel, whose managerial contract with Pacquiao will not be renewed, insists that Pacquiao will eventually “have to deal with Golden Boy Promotions if he wants the top fighters.”
“When will he (Pacquiao) wake up? He already lost one of his biggest opponents in the loser of (Juan Manuel) Marquez or (Marco Antonio) Barrera. Manny has this attitude from the people around him that he didn’t need Barrera.
“That just isn’t true. They both need each other. Now Barrera has Marquez and who does Manny have? Chi? Who got the worse of the deal? (It’s) Manny.”
Finkel had also lashed at the initial list of foes for Pacquiao and Finkel branded the group as “a joke.”
GBP, according to Finkel, and not Bob Arum’s Top Rank, has the big-name fighters that would generate a big payday. Also fighting under the GBP banner aside from Marquez and Barrera is unbeaten Joan Guzman of the Dominican Republic.
Finkel, who was instrumental in rescuing Pacquiao from the claws of New Jersey promoter Murad Muhammad in 2005, also knows the secret behind Pacquiao’s decision to hook up with Arum and leave Oscar De La Hoya’s GBP in a mess.
“I know what Arum said to get Manny, that is a discussion for another day,” said Finkel.
While Chi is the reigning World Boxing Council 126-lb champion and a holder of a decent 31-3-1 win-loss-draw card with 18 knockouts, ringsiders believe Pacquiao would feast on Chi as though the 33-year-old slugger is a plate of kimchi.
Meanwhile, Erik Morales, who just finished shooting a beer commercial for San Miguel Corporation, is set to leave the country this morning via Northwest Airlines.
Morales was in the high-end resort of Amanpulo in Palawan over the weekend with his wife Andrea after two days of filming the commercial somewhere in Forbes Park with Pacquiao and trainer Freddie Roach.
From Palawan, Morales and his wife, who are first-timers in the Philippines, proceeded to Makati to shop at Rockwell.
