Maybe it is foolish to ask if Pacquiao indeed has a case against Murad, but I cannot simply comfort myself to trust easily the new people around Manny and you cannot blame me to think this way because the Pacman is now a big time fighter.
My attitude towards the sudden rise of the new people around Manny forced me to take a look at the Muhammad Ali Boxing Safety Act in its relation to Pacquiao’s case against Murad.
Before going further, there are two cases filed by Pacquiao against his former promoter,
1. The taxes that Pacquiao owes to the IRS in which, was reported to have not been paid by Murad and his business partner to the said U.S. agency 2. The repeated failure of Murad on his obligation to provide the full disclosures of Pacquiao’s fights under him, especially on his fight with Erik Morales as required by 15 U.S.C. 6307e Section 111 of the amended Ali Act.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Safety Act amended the Professional Boxing Safety Act of 1996. Senator John McCain of Arizona was instrumental for its legislation and was approved by both the House and Senate, which signed it into law in May of 2000.
The Muhammad Ali Act is designed to protect the rights and welfare of professional boxers by preventing exploitive, oppressive, and unethical business practices; to assist State boxing commissions in providing more effective public oversight of the sport; and to promote honorable competition to enhance the overall integrity of the boxing industry.
I intend to focus only on the number 2 case against Murad because this is the case that is related to the Muhammad Ali Act.
The 15 U.S.C 6307e Section 111, which amended Section 13 of the Professional Boxing Act of 1996 covers the DISCLOSURES TO THE BOXER wherein-
Within 7 days after a professional boxing match of 10 rounds or more, the promoter of that match shall provide to each boxer participating in the match a statement of-
(1) The amounts of any compensation or consideration that a promoter has contracted to receive from such match, and that the promoter has paid, or agreed to pay, to any other person in connection with the match; (2) All fees, charges, and expenses that will be assessed by or through the promoter on the boxer pertaining to the event, including any portion of the boxer’s purse that the promoter will receive, and training expenses; and (3) Any reduction in a boxer’s purse contrary to a previous agreement between the promoter and the boxer or a purse bid held for the event. Referring closely on the stated Section 111 of the Ali Act, Pacquiao’s case versus Murad should fall under number one that states, ” the amounts of any compensation or consideration that a promoter has contracted to receive from such match, and that the promoter has paid, or agreed to pay, to any other person in connection with the match;”
and to number two which states that, “all fees, charges, and expenses that will be assessed by or through the promoter on the boxer pertaining to the event, including any portion of the boxer’s purse that the promoter will receive, and training expenses;”
The failure of Murad to provide all disclosures on Manny’s fights under him, especially the one with Morales wherein he purposely hide the Pay-Per-View disclosures to Pacman, just exactly neglected the provided law as stated in Section 111 (Disclosures To The Boxer) of the Ali Act.
Pacquiao and his lawyers as stated in their case said that there were repeated failures of Murad to provide Manny the full disclosures of his fights. This means they are not only talking about the Morales fight, they are also talking about the past fights of Manny. Referring to this, I could recall Manny’s fight against Marco Antonio Barrera where it was reported that HBO provided $700,000 budget contract to Murad for Pacquiao to fight Barrera, but Manny’s camp confirmed the Pacman only received $ 300,000 of the pie.
As part of the formal complaint provided by Pacquiao’s battery of attorneys, the suit is worth $33 million in damages plus a demand to unbound Pacquiao from any promotional agreement with Murad and a permanent injunction barring Murad from interfering in any way on Pacquiao’s effort to continue his career with other boxing promoter.
It is clear to me now that Pacquiao indeed has a case against Murad and though I think pushing the case is good for him initially, I am not quite sure if this matter would favor Pacquiao in the future. It is clear to me that Shelly Finkel, more than his intention to help Pacquiao cannot deny to me that he also has clear motives to steal Manny from Murad Muhammad. As I have said before, Pacman is now a prizefighter and any promoter out there would act like an angel in front of Manny to get his confidence and therefore benefit from the fighter who is now a big time moneymaker in the sport.
Manny Pacquiao showed them the opportunity and they took it, I just hope Finkel will not be another Murad Muhammad.
