Now that a trial date has been set for Manny Pacquiao’s lawsuit against his estranged American promoter, Murad Muhammad, it’s time he pondered how far his boxing career will go with the new group of people around him.
The progress of Pacquiao’s career will certainly hinge on the outcome of the jury trial set for June 20 by Judge Loretta Preska of the US District Court of the Southern District of New York. The judge has ordered the trial to be completed in two weeks, which Pacquiao’s lawyers claimed as a victory because they don’t want the boxer’s vocation stalled while the case is being resolved.
In the meantime, Pacquiao should examine the possible outcome of his $33-million (P1.78-billion) lawsuit against Muhammad and his promotional outfit, M&M Sports. He could win the case, allowing him to formally break his ties with a promoter he has come to openly despise, and look forward to more big-money fights in the future—or he could lose, ending up paying thousands of dollars in lawyers’ fees that he could have used to secure his family’s future, in case he cannot fight for a year or more owing to an injunction Muhammad is seeking against him.
We hope the injunction won’t prosper, but we are more worried that Pacquiao’s new management group—promoter Shelley Finkel and lawyers Keith Davidson and Nicholas Khan, all Americans—would abandon him if they lose the case.
The possibility isn’t not far-fetched; with an injunction preventing Manny from fighting in the United States, where most megabuck fights are promoted, his new managers would not be able to get the big purses Pacquiao now commands, like the $1.75 million he earned for fighting the Mexican Erik Morales in March. Consequently, Finkel, Davidson and Khan would be unable to get their share of their boxer’s earnings and thus recoup their investments.
In hindsight, Pacquiao put himself in this situation. Before signing up with Finkel and his friends on the eve of his bout with Morales, he had begun to distance himself from Muhammad, claiming he was not getting all the money due him from his fights under the blustering promoter. He had strained his relationship with his longtime business manager, Rod Nazario, by allowing other people into his inner circle while training for the Morales fight under Freddie Roach in Los Angeles. These other persons so convinced Pacquiao that he could be in charge of his own career that he started ignoring Nazario’s advice, which he had relied on so much in previous years.
We do not blame Pacquiao for seeking what is best for his career, even if he has done so by abandoning the people he has trusted. But we caution him to take a long, hard look at the people now around him, and ask himself if he truly believes he won’t be left holding the bag.
