LOS ANGELES — When Manny Pacquiao’s advisers, lawyer Franklin Gacal and confidant Wakee Salud, head back to Manila late Tuesday night (Wednesday afternoon in the Philippines), they expect the lawsuit filed against them by Pacquiao’s manager Shelly Finkel to have already been dropped.
“That’s what Finkel and lawyer Nicholas Khan assured us when we met while Manny was training,” said Salud on Monday.
The decision to drop the case was warmly received by members of Team Pacquiao as his 12-round battle with Mexican Oscar Larios at the Araneta Colisuem is less than three weeks away.
Gacal had earlier inquired whether the case filed by Finkel, Khan and Keith Davidson had indeed been withdrawn from the courthouse, but was quite disappointed that it was still filed.
“They told us that they will formally pull it out tomorrow (Tuesday),” said Gacal, who joins Salud in the Philippine Airlines jet that will take off from LAX at 10 p.m. They are expected to arrive in Manila at 5 a.m. Thursday.
Finkel admitted that the timing of the filing of the case was indeed off and that he hopes the withdrawal would ease the tension building up in the US and Filipino camps.
Not only that said Finkel, who revealed that during the meeting, he did not raise the issue of contract extension with the Filipinos. Finkel’s managerial relationship with Pacquiao expires on Jan. 31, 2007 and are looking forward to an extension.
“There was no discussion about that,” said Finkel when he dropped by the Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood where Pacquiao racked up eight rounds of hard sparring against Russians Vladimir Zykov and Rustam Nugaev.
Pacquiao just went through the motion of capping another day under strict supervision from trainer Freddie Roach, who joins Pacquiao on a flight via Philippine Airlines to Manila on Sunday night. They will arrive in Manila on Tuesday morning.
Roach said Pacquiao would still spar on Sunday here and should be in a gym somewhere in Metro Manila on Tuesday so their training would not skip a beat.
Roach plans to hold three sparring sessions in the final days of the Larios clash against Nugaev, who is eyeing to face Filipino Dennis Laurente in the star-studded undercard.
Pacquiao, eyeing a big money rubber match with Mexican Erik “El Terrible” Morales on Nov. 18 at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, reported for training on May 17.
