With less than two months before undefeated champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0,26ko) steps into the ring with Miguel Cotto (37-2, 30KO), for the WBA Super World Light Middleweight title, ?Money? finally is signaling that it?s time to end the Manny Pacquiao fishing tour and focus on the opponent in front of him.
During his recent press conference, Floyd refused questions from reporters that concerned Pacquiao as well as answering questions that broached on the subject of his campaign against Asian NBA player Jeremy Lin.
In the constant bombardment of Manny Pacquiao by the Mayweather PR machine, one constant undertone has been the accusation that Manny only fights the ?Been there done that? opponents of Floyd.
Did I miss something or has Manny already fought and stopped Miguel?
Oh well, in the world of propaganda, Mayweather is still the reigning pound for pound king, as demonstrated by his carnival type throne used during the press tour in California.
“My job is not to worry about other fighters. My job is to worry about the man that is put in front of me,” Mayweather said. “This is a Floyd Mayweather-Miguel Cotto press tour so that’s my focus at this particular time. Every guy that Floyd Mayweather faces is not going to be an easy task.”
At least for that day, that hour, that second, Mayweather Jr. was wearing his promoter?s hat.
While Mayweather Jr. faces a date with the jailor in June, Pacquiao himself is now under fire in his Philippine homeland as prosecutors are investigating whether there is enough evidence to file a criminal charges against the boxer/turned politician. This stems from a criminal complaint filed by Philippine tax officials that Pacquiao failed to submit the documents despite three notices and a subpoena.
Manny could face up to two years with the jailor himself is convicted
Bureau of Internal Revenue regional director Rozil Lozares said Thursday that Pacquiao?s 2010 tax return contained “discrepancies”.
Last year there was a public battle between Pacquiao?s former accounting firm VisionQwest and Manny regarding interference from Pacquiao Camp members when the accounting agency attempted to investigate and clarify issues regarding Pacquiao?s finances, taxes, and contracts.
The battle resulted in the dismissal of the Michael Lodge led Los Angeles company, that also holds an office in the Philippines, and the disclosure that VisionQwest alleged they were owed over half a million dollars in loans and services to the champion. This allegation was secondary to the information that VisionQwest accused members of the Pacquiao team of blocking their attempts to assist the champ.
Business Advisor Michael Koncz responded to the lawsuit ultimately filed be VisionQwest.
“Because VisionQwest has breached a number of confidentiality laws contained within their own contract and made a number of slanderous statements against Manny Pacquiao and myself alleging that I’m misappropriating money and stealing money, which is totally bulls**t.”
“They spent more time focusing on trying to handle Manny’s endorsements and then subsequently trying to be fight promoters by putting together the fights, that they lost their focus and never worked on our taxes. They didn’t inform Manny the true standing of our taxes, which subsequently has been done by our new accounting firm.
“Other than that, I have no further public statements. It’s in the hands of our lawyers. There will be no further public comments made on this issue by Team Pacquiao. Any additional comments to be made will be made by our attorneys, David Marroso and Dan Petrocelli.” — Michael Koncz, Manny Pacquiao’s adviser.
Lodge issued a statement regarding comments by Koncz.
“Mike Koncz is misrepresenting the facts. VisionQwest was still in the process of reviewing Top Rank for Pacquiao up to the time Mike Koncz and Pacquiao breached their contract. We kept Manny informed of the status. We had a last meeting with him in July where he signed a new contract that allowed us to go forward and take legal action against Top Rank.
“Manny asked us to not do anything until September 1 against Top Rank, which we followed. However, because of interference from certain parties, they terminated our contract in September. Thus, Mr. Koncz has not given a true statement of fact. Go back and review our last press release that records the facts.” — Michael L Lodge, President and CEO, VisionQwest Resource Group, Inc.
In hind sight, it appears that VisionQwest perhaps should have been retained and one needs to question whether Lodge saw some smoke that may blaze into flames in the Philippines.
?They didn’t inform Manny the true standing of our taxes, which subsequently has been done by our new accounting firm.? Koncz stated in 2011.
Recently Pacquiao was quoted as saying during the closing program of the Special Basic Citizen Military Training, where Manny handed out new uniforms to the nearly 400 new graduate reservists of the Philippine Army in the province of Saragani.
?You must be role models and always abide the Constitution and the rule of the law,? he said.
Whoops! Enough said from both these guys!
