CEBU CITY ? Moments before heading back to General Santos City on Thursday morning after attending a championship fight held 12 hours earlier, Manny Pacquiao confirmed reports emanating from the States that a case has been filed against his US promoter Murad Muhammad.
The case wad filed on April 27 (April 28 in Manila) in New York City by Judd Burstein, a topnotch boxing lawyer, who the Bulletin had announced last Monday would handle Pacquiao?s legal battle versus the New Jersey-based Muhammad.
Pacquiao, 26, refused to make any statement regarding the lawsuit as per advice by his lawyers in the US, but sounded thrilled about engaging Muhammad in a fight inside the court room.
“Nginig na siguro si Murad ngayon,” said Pacquiao, who watched superfeather Randy Suico?s successful defense of the Orient-Pacific Boxing Federation on Wednesday night in Lapu-Lapu, Mactan Island.
The charge sheet said that Muhammad has stolen money from the extremely-popular fighter who he signed up in June 2001.
“It has taken me awhile to come to terms with the fact that I have been cheated by people whom I trusted,” said Pacquiao in the complaint.
Burstein said Muhammad, who owns the promotional outfit M&M Sports, practiced “shameless exploitation” of Pacquiao by Muhammad described as being “greedy and unscrupulous.”
Burstein, who had successfully represented boxing icons Lennox Lewis and Julio Cesar Chavez, is being assisted by Los Angeles-based lawyers Keith Davidson and Nicholas Khan and his manager Shelly Finkel.
Surprisingly, the name of Rod Nazario, Pacquiao?s long-time business manager, was not mentioned in the lawsuit.
“Ang sabi ko kasi sa kanila (lawyers) ay huwag isama si (Rod) Nazario,” said Pacquiao, who met with Finkel and company in Los Angeles for one week recently.
Despite the presence of dark clouds on the horizon, Pacquiao believes he will be able to get back into the ring in August or September this year under a new promotion group in anticipation of a much-anticipated rematch either with Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera before the year comes to a close.
The charismatic Pacquiao, who was here on a whirlwind visit, even hinted about the possibility of strutting his stuff in a non-title fight in Cebu in partnership with renowned promoter Wakee Salud.
