Marty Elorde said yesterday he expected consensus world featherweight boxing champion Manny Pacquiao wouldn?t renew his five-year contract that expired last Jan. 31 and expressed no rancor in losing his 30 percent management share to Brooklyn rock promoter Shelly Finkel.
Elorde offered Pacquiao a P5 Million signing bonus and a P20,000 monthly allowance in negotiating for a five-year renewal but was turned down.
The other day, Pacquiao inked a two-year deal in Los Angeles to be managed by Finkel.
Despite Finkel?s entry, Elorde told The STAR he is entitled to a 30 percent share in Pacquiao?s purse for facing Erik Morales in Las Vegas on March 19 because the fight was negotiated while his contract was still in effect. He said his lawyers are prepared to go to court if Pacquiao or Finkel refuses to give his share.
Elorde said he will not initiate legal proceedings until after the Morales fight. He said he bought a $200 ticket to watch the bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
It is not clear what role New Jersey promoter Murad Muhammad will play in the new scheme of things even as Rod Nazario remains Pacquiao?s business manager. In March last year, Pacquiao signed a contract giving Muhammad the rights to promote his next four fights in the US at a minimum purse of $500,000 each. Muhammad has three fights left to promote under the contract.
Finkel, 60, was ranked No. 13 among boxing?s 50 most influential personalities by Boxing Digest in 2001 and is a past Boxing Writers? Association Manager of the Year. “He?s boxing?s last great manager?perhaps the only manager around today,” said writer Don Majeski.
Finkel has represented Pernell Whitaker, Meldrick Taylor, Evander Holyfield, Mark Breland, Johnny Bumphus, Vinnie Pazienza, Mike McCallum, Michael Moorer, Zab Judah, Fernando Vargas, Vivian Harris, Francisco Bojado, Rocky Juarez, Jeff Lacy, Juan Diaz, Malik Scott, Dominick Guinn and Mike Tyson among others.
Finkel was raised in the tough Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York. A Shodan karate black belter, he graduated from the Community College of New York in 1965. He was involved in the computer dating business, managed a New York singles disco called “Action House” and staged rock concerts before turning to boxing in 1977.
As a rock promoter, Finkel made history by drawing over 600,000 fans to witness a concert featuring the Allman Brothers, The Band and Grateful Dead in a speedway on a farm in Watkins Glen, New York, in 1973. He managed the New York-based hard-rock band Vanilla Fudge and took one of its albums to the top of the charts, selling over a million copies.
Finkel promoted amateur boxing shows before starting a professional stable with fighters like Tony Ayala, Bumphus, Mitch (Blood) Green, Tony (TNT) Tucker and Alex Ramos.
In 1994, The Ring Magazine said Finkel assembled the most talented array of boxers in the world. “His warmth and understanding beat out the likes of Don King, Bob Arum, Phil Alessi and multi-millionairess Joan Abercrombie for the professional contracts of Olympic medalists Tyrell Biggs, Holyfield, Jerry Page and Whitaker,” said The Ring. KO Magazine described Finkel as “one of the premier managers in the game.
“Finkel said he?s been lucky in boxing.
“Any fighter that I really wanted I?ve been lucky enough to handle,” Finkel told Jeff Ryan of KO Magazine. “Nobody pays to see Shelly Finkel, Bob Arum or Don King do anything. The only ones they pay to see are the ones who get in the ring. To me, you try to showecase the fighters while staying in the background as much as possible.
“When I go after a new kid, he knows what I did. He knows that I?ve handled the heavyweight champion of the world, the undisputed lightheavyweight champion, the welterweight champion. He knows that when my kid?s day is over, he?s earned a lot of money and kept most of it.”
Explaining his philosophy, Finkel said: “You want things for people and it?s not just money-motivated. I want things for people who are decent people and when any of those things come, I?m just grateful that I?ve been able to make a contribution to it.”
Finkel was chastised in media for his showing at a Nevada State Athletic Commission hearing on Tyson?s application for a boxing license in 1998.
“It was Finkel who managed to annoy the Nevada Commission with evasions and lies and was a no-show at a subsequent hearing,” said John Phillips in Fight Game Magazine. “Even the mild-mannered Finkel seems to have caught the Tyson virus.”
Reacting to the criticism, Finkel said: “I?m no angel in this business. You may go in thinking you?re angelic but you get the rude awakening very quickly on that. You have to do things that compromise you a lot of times and still live with yourself.”
At least, Finkel is honest about being dishonest.
