For beating up Sande Otieno of Kenya last Sunday night, Bernabe Concepcion was paid P500,000, loose change compared to what Manny Pacquiao received when he mauled Oscar dela Hoya last December in Las Vegas.
“I had to make sure Bernabe gets paid well for this fight so I gave him the equivalent of $ 10,000 for the Otieno fight,” said Aljoe Jaro who promoted the fight held at the Araneta Coliseum.
Jaro, who also acts as Concepcion?s trainer and manager, is disenchanted with the manner with which Top Rank is charting his ward?s career.
“If they (Top Rank) wouldn?t give us fights, then I?ll be forced to do it here,” said Jaro, who will consult with Pacquiao in relation with what?s on the horizon for his fighter.
Pacquiao, also promoted by Top Rank, now commands between $ 15 and $ 20 million a fight.
In contrast, Concepcion gets between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 from Top Rank.
Since hooking up with Top Rank in the latter part of 2006, Concepcion has figured in eight fights six in the United States and two in Mexico. He got his biggest paycheck — $ 20,000 when he stopped American Adam Carrera in July last year.
“Instead of seeing the purse increase with every fight and every win, we were paid somewhere between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000,” said Jaro, who accuses boxing man Mike Koncz as being the culprit.
Koncz, a close adviser of Pacquiao, reportedly negotiates with Top Rank on behalf of Jaro and Concepcion.
Jaro said when Concepcion made his debut in Nov. 2006 — underneath the Pacquiao-Erik Morales III headliner at the Thomas and Mack Center — Top Rank paid them $ 10,000. Concepcion won his first fight on US shores by outpointing Joksan Hernandez of Mexico.
Three more victories followed and Top Rank brought Concepcion to Mexico two times but the purse didn?t go higher than $ 20,000 mark, said Jaro.
“I believe that he is not giving us what our real worth is,” added Jaro.
When Pacquiao made his debut in June 2001, he was paid $ 40,000 and in his last outing, a career-defining win over Oscar De La Hoya, Pacquiao reportedly received a total of $ 15 million and stands to earn much more than that when he collides with Ricky Hatton of England on May 2.
Concepcion extended his winning streak to 16 fights by stopping Otieno, who was not allowed to answer the bell for round six, owing to a hideous cut on his left eyebrow, and in the process captured the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) International featherweight title.
An early-April date has been eyed by Jaro for Concepcion to surface again and possibly clash with Mexican Heriberto Ruiz, who is coming off a victory over the immensely-popular Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista.
And should Concepcion get past Ruiz, Jaro will try to bring in Oscar Larios, the lanky Mexican who once brawled with Pacquiao, for a July rumble with Concepcion. Larios is the reigning WBC featherweight crown.
