AMERICAN promoter Murad Muhammad has filed a counter suit against the new management team of Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, led by Shelly Finkel, according to an Internet report on Thursday.
Also named respondents in the suit, filed in federal court in New York, were American trainer Freddie Roach and lawyers Keith Davidson and Nick Khan.
In his suit, Muhammad, who has been handling Pacquiao’s fights in the Unites States since 1998, claimed that the fighter’s new handlers had lied to Pacquiao about the boxer’s purse when he fought the Mexican Erik Morales on March 19.
Muhammad said that Finkel and his team had deceived Pacquiao that he should have gotten more than the $1.7 million (P91.8 million) prize that he got, which had been agreed upon in the contract the boxer signed with the promoter.
Pacquiao has insisted that, like Morales, he should have earned a cut of the pay-per-view take of that fight, which grossed close to $17 million (P918 million).
The report said that Murad alleged that the new management team convinced PacMan to breach his contract with M & M Sports “when he [Pacquiao] fired Muhammad.”
Under the terms of the agreement, Pacquiao cannot take part in any professional fight or enter into any oral or written agreement with another party without the consent of M & M Sports and Muhammad.
In his affidavit, Murad said the new group “interfered with the contractual relationship with Pacquiao and M & M Sports and Muhammad.”
On top of that, the American promoter is also seeking additional damages for “disparaging remarks” allegedly attributed to Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer, about M & M Sports and Murad.
Pacquiao earlier filed a $33-million (P1.85 billion) suit against Murad for allegedly failing to disclose the real state of the boxer’s financial dealings in all of the contracts that the promoter entered into on behalf of the Filipino fighter.
The lawsuit against M&M Sports and Murad Muhammad, filed on April 27, alleges the promoters transferred more than 30 percent of Pacquiao’s purses to a shell company on the basis his American taxes would be paid from there.
But the taxes were never paid, the lawsuit said, leaving Pacquiao with huge bills for back taxes, penalties and interest.
Pacquiao’s lawsuit also alleges the arrangement meant his business managers agreed to purses that were below market, since they could make more from the money they set aside than they would from the 10-percent fee on properly negotiated purses.
“It has taken me a while to come to terms with the fact that I have been cheated by people whom I trusted,” Pacquiao had in a statement.
Pacquiao (39-3-2) was the International Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion from 2001 to 04 and World Boxing Council flyweight champion from 1998 to 99.
He lost his most recent bout to Erik Morales of Mexico by unanimous decision in their 130-pound (58-kilogram) showdown last month in Las Vegas.
