IT SEEMS Manny Pacquiao, who will face Erik Morales for the third time this November, is in the middle of another potential fight, and this time its not in the ring.
The players? Oscar dela Hoya and his Golden Boy Outfit going mano a mano with Bob Arum and Top Rank Promotions.
The recent predicament Pacquiao is in started when Pacquiao, whose third fight against Morales is promoted by Arum, signed a seven-fight contract with Golden Boy.
According to Arum, such signing is explicitly prohibited in his current contract with Manny.
“It is clear that he (Pacquiao) was prohibited from signing with Golden Boy or any other promoter at least until after the Morales fight takes place,” Arum told a columnist of the LA Daily Times in a report posted at philboxing.com.
Arum also clarified that Pacquiao knew of such provision in the contract as “they went through it with a fine-toothed comb” and has earlier threatened to sue GBP over their latest move.
Dela Hoya earlier told espn.com that his acquisition of Pacquiao brought a smile to his face as he finally got one over Arum, his top rival in the business.
Opportunity
“When we sign somebody to a major promotional fight and we’re paying them millions and millions of dollars, we don’t want them signing a deal with another promoter. We want the opportunity during the promotion to see if we can reach an arrangement with the kid, with his management team, and if we can’t, then he is free to go,” Arum said.
However, GBP, which gave Pacquiao $330,000 as a signing bonus, is ready to face Arum.
GBP vice president Eric Gomez was quoted in the same report saying “We do have Manny Pacquiao signed to a legal, binding contract. We feel that we did nothing wrong. Our attorneys have looked over the contract and they feel very confident that he (Arum) doesn’t have a case. We like to do business ethically. If it wasn’t ethical, we wouldn’t do it.”
