BOXER Manny Pacquiao should do professional boxing some good by getting rid of his glib-tongued and wily American promoter Murad Muhammad. I will even agree with Pacquiao’s plan to file charges against Murad for failing to turn over his share from the pay-per-view sales of his recent classic fight against Mexico’s Erik Morales.
Murad reportedly earned about $2.8 million from the PPV sales for just doing the talking, while Pacquiao got nothing for fighting atop the ring, risking life and limb. Where is justice and fairness here?
“A promoter should not earn more than the boxer,” said Pacquiao’s noted American trainer Freddie Roach. “That’s horrible. That should not be the case.”
“Bakit wala si Pacquiao sa PPV contract?” asked veteran boxing man Hermie Rivera in a recent television interview. “Why did Pacquiao’s people allow this travesty to happen? Aren’t boxers supposed to enjoy the protection of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act?”
In my case, I feel I have done my duty as a watchdog for boxing by warning the public about the “dangers” of dealing with Murad even though at the start there were too few of us who cared to listen and far too many of them, including some media members who are apologists for boxing, who got hooked on Murad.
No amount of legal maneuverings by Murad and his spin doctors could erase the fact that Pacquiao did not earn from the PPV proceeds. It’s as simple as that.
The issue here is no longer legal, but moral. The unfair treatment that Pacquiao received for reasons not of his own making, is a matter that should be defended, if not as a legal obligation, then as the right and civilized thing to do.
There is no question that Pacquiao was paid a hefty purse ($1.75 million) for fighting Morales, but it is also true that he did not earn a single centavo from the PPV sales. Morales reportedly got 40 percent of the PPV share, Bob Arum of Top Rank, who also handles Morales, 20 percent; and Murad, 40 percent which was supposed to go to his boxer, Pacquiao. Clearly, Pacquiao was a victim of a rip-off.
