Dear Dong:
Let me state for the record that indeed we advised Manny Pacquiao to sign the addendum to his mother contract with promoter Murad Muhammad after the eminent lawyer and founding secretary general of the World Boxing Council Rudy Salud and his lawyer-son Atty.Chito Salud studied the contract of Murad and affirmed that it was ?airtight.?
In fact Manny initially declined to sign the addendum because of a clause which stated that he would be paid $900,000 to fight Juan Manuel Marquez or ?a credible opponent? on February 26 and Erik Morales or ?a credible opponent? in July for $1.75 million.
Pacquiao brought up a valid concern that if he couldn?t fight Marquez, promoter Murad Muhammad would claim that the replacement was not a credible opponent and reduce his purse. He had the same fears in the case of Morales and we understood that.
We explained to him that the reason for use of the phrase ?a credible opponent? was to protect HBO which was to put up the money for the fights as they always do and the network didn?t want to guarantee such huge amounts for lesser fighters.
It was Atty. Salud who suggested that in order to protect HBO and remove Manny?s doubts, the addendum should be amended to state ?an opponent acceptable to HBO.? In short, if Marquez or Morales, for one reason or another, didn?t fight Pacquiao the opponent would have to be approved by HBO in order to protect its investment. Murad agreed right away and the addendum was revised to incorporate Atty. Salud?s suggestion which was also acceptable t HBO. Pacquiao then signed the addendum in BF Gomes. In fact we shot this and Manny told me directly, ?I am signing this because I trust you my friend.?
It is worth noting that under Murad’s contract he was obligated to pay Pacquiao a minimum of $500,000 per fight under the contract signed in March 2004 and could have held Pacquiao to this, if he wanted to. But he did not.
Winchell Campos claimed in his article that we ?cajoled him (Manny) into signing back with Muhammad, who previously was not able to shop for a worthy opponent, including a supposed rematch with Juan Manuel Marquez in September.?
We did not cajole Manny. We advised him that Atty. Salud said Murad had an airtight contract and if he did not fulfill the obligations under that contract he would not be able to fight in the US because Murad would sue him especially if he followed Campos? attempts to make Pacquiao sign up with Oscar De La Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions in violation of his ?live? contract with Murad. We told Pacquiao to fulfill his obligations under the contract with Murad and then do whatever he likes. We told him what Salud said ? that if Murad took legal action Pacquiao would be forced to fight in the Philippines where he would never earn the kind of money he earns by fighting in the US. This is when Manny signed the contract.
You know that Manny couldn?t take the rematch with Marquez in September 2004 because Manny had injured his hand as well as his foot in the first fight. He said so himself in the post fight stories. That is why the Fahsan 3K Battery fight was arranged with the help of PLDT ?Smart, Solar Sports and Murad Muhammad and Rod Nazario.
The Fahsan fight was designed to give Manny a workout, to enable him to earn $300,000 for an easy night?s work and to give Filipino boxing fans a chance to see him in action. You may recall that we served as ring announcer and introduced Pacquiao as our national treasure. There is no way we will ever hurt that treasure or deny him his just due.
The rematch with Marquez in February didn?t push through not because of Murad?s fault but because Marquez priced himself out of the market. He wanted $1.5 million because he had two belts while Manny had none and was getting $900,000. We can debate this till we are blue in the face but we have to accept the reality that Marquez was both IBF and WBA champion and put up a tremendous battle in their first meeting.
Besides, truth to tell, Pacquiao was not in shape for the Fahsan fight and even Freddie Roach admitted he would have had problems if he fought Marquez with a mere six weeks training before February 26.
Campos claimed my ?bluff would later be debunked by HBO officials and the Marquez fight would not materialize.? This is a blatant lie! Just like much of the stories fabricated by Campos which have also unfairly accused Rod Nazario whom Manny looks up to like a father, as being a crook and with his son Roberto, cheating on the tax issue.
Campos takes credit for getting Pacquiao to open a company in Las Vegas ? Emmanuel Pacquiao Inc., of which Manny was the sole boss. Well, I got news for you. The reason the US Internal Revenue Service got suspicious was when the second company was opened. Why open a new company in Las Vegas when all these years he deposited his purse in the old company in California? The IRS smelled something was wrong.
Quite honestly we don?t know whether Manny has any tax liabilities for the past years but we did meet in Las Vegas with a Senior Tax Specialist of the IRS who told us that if there were any tax deficiencies there was time to settle this before April 15. We do not know what taxes were paid although Roberto Nazario who handled these affairs on behalf of his father said he has all the receipts and everything was above board. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary we have to take his word.
We understand that Roach, on Dong Puno Live? mentioned the fact that we got Pacquiao to sign the addendum to the mother contract of Murad. That is true and we have never denied it. However, please note this was not an extension of Murad?s contract signed earlier last year. It was merely specifying two of the fights under the mother contract. Nothing more. Nothing less.
When we had Manny sign the addendum we had no idea at all that the Marquez fight would not push through nor did we know the Morales fight would be a pay-per-view event. How were we to divine in early January that the Marquez fight would not push through and the Morales fight would be on PPV? Let?s be fair.
Roach had claimed, quite a few times, that he negotiated the Morales fight with Bob Arum of Top Rank and that Manny was to get 40 percent of the take. We were privy to a conversation between Murad and Arum in which Arum categorically denied that he ?ever spoke to Roach? or that he ?visited my office at anytime. He never spoke to me about Manny Pacquiao or Mike Tyson or anybody else.? Who do you think is telling the truth? We leave members of this site and fight fans to be the judge. Besides, if Roach negotiated on behalf of Manny he was going out of bounds and interfering in the business of the manager and promoter which is illegal.
Let me state that we have in fact emailed Murad Muhammad and requested him to provide us with all the financial details of the HBO PPV deal if it will not compromise any confidentiality clause in the contract. We even suggested that if Murad made good money from the PPV that he give Pacquiao a percentage of that profit even though he is not legally bound to do so. Here again we need to remember that the main promoter was Top Rank and Bob Arum and Murad Muhammad played a supporting role because he had Pacquiao under a promotional contract.
Isn?t it strange that nobody ? Roach, Shelly Finkel, his lawyers Kahn and Davidson and Campos himself have said a word about Arum or his responsibilities? Is this an orchestrated effort to discredit Murad and Nazario so the Pacquiao handlers would remain in the good graces of Arum?
We will get to Freddie Roach next and hopefully open the eyes of all Pacquiao supporters to the fact that he is not as great a trainer as he is being made out to be and as for his ethics ?there is so much left to be desired. We will leave that for another time.
Dong, all we ask his fairness and decency. Fans are free to give their opinions and believe me, we welcome constructive criticism. Leave the racist remarks, the wild accusations of being paid by Murad or Nazario and the obscene language, out. For we have never accused Winchell Campos or anyone else of being paid for lambasting Murad and Nazario on behalf of Roach, Finkel et al.
One of these days when the passions die down we will seek out Manny and talk to him like we?ve always done in the past ? since he was a 16 year old kid making his debut on ?Blow by Blow.? And we will talk to him as though he was a son for whom we have always fought the good fight, no matter what people may say.
Dong, you have done a great service with your site. Let?s all work together to ensure that it isn?t consumed by hate or by people who simply refuse to listen or to see the truth.
To all Pacman fans. We are fans too. But as journalists we have a job to do and we get paid by the newspaper we write for—nobody else. And that is God?s truth.
Sincerely, Ronnie Nathanielsz
(5pm 1 April 2005, PI time)
