After Manny Pacquiao’s sensational win over Lehlo Ledwaba in June 2001, promoter Murad Muhammad knew that he had his lotto ticket. Previously filing for bankruptcy, some 15 years ago, Muhammad didn’t want to lose an opportunity to make millions in future Pacquiao fights. If former agent/attorney Sydney Hall had it his way, by the time Pacquiao’s promotional agreement expired, which was in June 2002, he would negotiate a bigger better deal with a better promoter. He explicitly advised business manager Rod Nazario not to get too close to Murad, as he is a guy not be trusted. Especially since HBO was extremely interested in the development of the Filipino, dubbing him as “the most exciting power puncher since Prince Hamed.” However, through many discussions behind Hall’s, Marty Elorde’s, and Pacquiao’s back, Murad and Nazario signed to be co-promoters in a private agreement.
TERMS OF THE AGREEMENT
Signed in August of 2001, Murad?€™s company (M&M Sports) agreed to share the profits for any Manny Pacquiao fight with Rod Nazario. According to the contract, in U.S based fights of Pacquiao, M&M would take the first 15% of the profits and the remaining would be “divided equally between M&M and Nazario.” Should Pacquiao’s fight be held in the Philippines the opposite would hold true, with Nazario taking the first 15% and M&M and Nazario splitting the remaining amount. So the math adds up to 42.5% of promotional profits that went to Nazario in Manny’s fights in the United States. What should not be forgotten is that Manny also had to pay Nazario 10% of his gross purse.
FOOLING THE STATE COMMISSIONS NOT TOUGH!
Days before the fight, promoters are obligated to provide the State Athletic Commission an official bout agreement, which includes the purse of the fighter, for obvious tax and good faith purposes. In attorney Judd Burstein’s motion to allow Nazario’s testimony, he points out that in California, a boxer must be paid in front of a Commission representative. The presented check, which Manny claims to have given to Nazario, for the (2001) Agapito Sanchez fight of $120,000, they believe, was not deposited.
FOLLOWING THE MONEY FOLKS
Instead checks amounting to $159,000 were deposited to Nazario’s company Philippine Boxing LLC (PPLLC). With Pacquiao’s $120,000, Nazario earned an extra $39,000, based on the agreement made between promoter and manager. Obviously, Manny had no idea about this private arrangement, as he would have clear objected to it.
HUGE & UNLAWFUL CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Essentially, Nazario and Muhammad became co-promoters of Manny Pacquiao throughout all his fights in the United States. This clearly violates the “Muhammad Ali Act,” which protects a fighter from a promoter making any financial agreements with a manager. Nazario’s role was to have Pacquiao’s best interest at heart, but now he had Muhammad as a partner. For Muhammad, it was his way to join with Nazario (financially) to eliminate Hall and Elorde, and own a dictatorship on Pacquiao’s career. With Nazario on the take, Hall quickly was removed and when Marty Elorde negotiated a pact with Lou Di Bella, he was exiled just as fast.
ALL THE PAST EVENTS BECOME CLEARER!
It’s important to remember that when reading about the past events, Rod Nazario and Murad Muhammad had their own economic interests in Pacquiao’s fights. When Pacquiao’s initial contract with Murad Muhammad was about to expire, Hall and Elorde wanted to remove Manny from Murad’s clutches and sign with Di Bella. If asked to testify, Lou DiBella will state that he offered Pacquiao “a guaranteed appearance on HBO…a $50,000 signing bonus, full disclosure of all finances and contracts, and the greater of a minimum of another $2.4 million for nine fights over the next years.” At the time, this was an offer only a fool would decline. This obviously would only benefit Pacquiao because should Manny sign with Di Bella, the contract with M&M would be expired, as well as the agreement between Murad and Nazario.
MURAD BEGINS TELLING “NON-TRUTHS”
Muhammad thus began to lie and manipulate the situation by falsely telling Di Bella that he owned Manny for another year. Nazario, for obvious reasons, refused to read the proposal, stating that it was Muhammad that can only negotiate HBO fights for Manny. Hall remembers Nazario explicitly ordering him to find errors in the proposal. Protecting his own vested interests with Murad, Nazario convince Manny that Di Bella, who used to be the HBO V.P of Sports Programming, was not as good of a promoter as the “miracle maker” Murad. Thus, Manny signed a weaker extension with Murad.
PACQUIAO WANTED OUT AFTER BARRERA
When Manny heard that Jim Lampley announced that Murad was paid 700,000 for the Pacquiao-Marco Antonio Barrera fight, Pacquiao was furious with Murad. When he complained to Nazario about only receiving $350,000, “another $100,000 was suddenly paid to Mr. Pacquiao.” After the Juan Manuel Marquez fight, Pacquiao was disappointed again with Muhammad’s performance as a promoter when the immediate rematch failed to materialize. He then ordered Nazario to arrange a fight in Philippines, as long as Muhammad was not the promoter. He said yes to Manny, but was bound legally to the agreement he made with Murad, who came to the Philippines as a “supporter.” As a supporter, he sent Nazario a fax that since Manny was fighting in the Philippines, the mother agreement would be extended another six months.
PAST BECOMES THE PRESENT
Nazario once again convinced Manny to sign an addendum to another extension with Muhammad before Manny’s fight in December 2004. The basis for this agreement was that the February 26th date was secure, with or without Marquez, with a guaranteed purse of $900,000. When that fight fell out, instead of looking for another opponent (suitable to HBO), Manny was forced to fight Erik Morales one fight earlier.
LESSON THAT HAVE BEEN LEARNED
Since Nazario was the silent promoter, it would be to his benefit to lower Manny’s purse as much as possible in order to gain a higher profit. For Murad, he had a relationship with the manager and therefore was willing to lower Manny?€™s purse and deny add-ons PPV fights bring. For years, guys like Pedro Fernandez have questioned the integrity of the purses with Murad. With the revelation that an agreement was made by Nazario and Muhammad back in 2001, it became their interestes ahead of Manny’s interestes. Clearly this violates the Muhammad Ali Act and really puts into question all of the decision made in Manny’s carrer. Going from Barrera to Marquez to Morales was an economically a brilliant move by Murad. Instead of Manny cashing in on a guaranteed $900,000 against Marquez, or another opponent, Murad got greedy and ordered Nazario to force Manny to fight Morales, because of the high profit value. Knowing he would receive all the PPV money, Murad couldn’t wait till July and made the fight in March. If Muhammad really cared about Pacquiao’s professional career, he would found an opponent of Manny for the February fight. According to the contract, Manny was guaranteed the $1.7 million against Morales, why not get the $900,000 first, while getting ready for Morales, the toughest opponent of his career. There should’ve been someone within protecting Manny from Murad, but manager Elorde was exiled while still on contract, Hall was fired, and Nazario is Murad’s business partner.
CONCLUSION
To sum up what?€™s been revealed, Judge Wolin once said about Muhammad back in 1995, “You know, in you testimony, Mr. Muhammad, you indicated that reputation and credibility are important…Well, if you’re the best thing boxing represents, then the credibility and reputation of boxing is severely scarred.” Ten years later, it still rings true.
