Why, oh, why, couldn’t Manny Pacquiao just wait until November 19th to sign a new promotional deal?
Instead, he signed a deal with Golden Boy Promotions after coming off the plane a few months ago, stunning the boxing world and angering Bob Arum. And in the wake of his devastation of Erik Morales this past weekend, there is a massive tug-of-war between Golden Boy, who believe that they have a valid contract with ‘the Pac Man’, and Top Rank, which believes that he was prohibited from signing any such deal till after his bout with Morales.
So in the past 24 hours, a flurry of legal actions has been filed as the battle for Pacquiao begins in earnest.
“We have a valid contract and they have interfered with our contract; as a result we filed a legal action yesterday here in Los Angeles,” Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, would tell Maxboxing. “I understand that they have filed action against us today. So we basically beat them to the punch, again. Just like we were the first ones to sign Pacquiao and I guess it’s tough to be second for Arum.”
Arum, on his filing, says, “It’s a complaint against Golden Boy asking the federal court to state that our contract is valid and theirs isn’t.”
When asked if he expects a protracted legal fight, Arum would state confidently, “Trust me, they have no case. What they did was wrong. They can’t get around the fact that we had a contract with Manny which prevented him from signing a contract with another promoter during the pendency of the promotion. And they did sign him then and everything follows from that. It’s an easy case.”
But Schaefer is just as assured.
?I think we have a very clear case,” he says, “But we will obviously see what’s going to happen and the fact is, the way they make it sound is that we forced Manny into signing something – which couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact is that Manny was represented by his attorney, Franklin Jacal, who not only signed and initialed each page of the contract together with Manny, but who heavily, intensively and very knowledgeably negotiated that deal, which resulted in substantial changes to the originally negotiated contract. So there really isn’t more to that.”
In another subplot to this ever frigid cold war between Top Rank and Golden Boy is that it’s pretty clear that both companies have aligned themselves with various people around Pacquiao in the hopes of influencing him to their organization. There seems to be strife inside his own camp with no clear direction, except perhaps the road to perdition.
“I think Manny has been ill-advised by certain individuals on his side and that’s why we are currently investigating and are on a fact-finding mission to see that certain advisors like Michael Koncz and Wakee Salud and of course, his attorney, have conspired against Golden Boy and advised Manny to breach his agreement,” said Schaefer. “If this turns out to be the case, then obviously lawsuits against these individuals will also be filed shortly.”
Golden Boy had just recently gotten into a disagreement with Salud over the services of Jimrex Jaca, who will be facing Juan Manuel Marquez on a Golden Boy promotion this weekend. Salud, who supposedly represented him, had tried to put him on this past weekend?s undercard in Las Vegas on Top Rank’s promotion after hearing about the Marquez deal being finalized.
Yeah, things are so acrimonious between the two sides that they were fighting over Jimrex Jaca.
But that’s not all the news on the Golden Boy front, who today dropped their claims over Diego Corrales after Gary Shaw finally showed his trump card – which was a valid promotional agreement.
?Shaw supplied a copy of the deal,” Schaefer admitted. “I haven’t really studied the deal because it’s not really up to me. The fact is, if there is a contract, a signed contract out there, then it’s really up to Corrales to go and do the right thing.”
For Shaw this is sweet vindication.
?I always knew I was going to be vindicated,” said the jubilant promoter. “On your website, on other websites, with every reporter, no matter what Richard Schaefer said, I told everybody – I had a contract.”
Corrales inked his deal with Golden Boy shortly after his October 7th bout against Joel Casamayor, where he failed to make weight and dropped a lackluster decision to the Cuban. During that promotion at the Mandalay Bay, Shane Mosley and his wife, Jin, were hovering around Corrales throughout the week and were even credentialed. After the bout, Mosley would even climb into the ring to meet Corrales. And he is not just a Golden Boy boxer, but someone who is one of the ‘partners’ in the firm. The term ‘tortious interference’ may apply here.
?Absolutely,” said a fired up Shaw. “I have something to tell Jin Mosley – she went on the record saying she’s advising Diego Corrales. Did she call Oscar and say withdraw the contract? And what is she advising Diego now that he’s in the middle of a lawsuit and it’s going to cost him a lot of legal bills? What’s her advice to all the others that she says she’s advising?”
There’s no doubt that showing that he had a valid promotional contract was about business. But with the accusations that were thrown against him in the prior weeks, this has now become a personal matter to Shaw.
Things may just be getting started.
?I have a team of attorneys working on this for me and I will meet with them right after the holidays on Monday and figure out how to proceed,” Shaw would say. “But I sure hope Jin Mosley is going to give Diego free-of-charge, not only her advice but the money for his attorneys.”
And he had a parting message for his former client.
?When I’m doing a fight, stay out of the ring and pay respect. I don’t jump into the ring when Golden Boy’s doing a fight.”
Oh, and what did Arum think of all this?
?I think they’ll get a little gun-shy now because of our suit, the whole thing. Good for Gary.” But by the way, Shaw is still pursuing his lawsuit against Arum and his fighter, Jose Luis Castillo, for the aborted June 3rd bout with Corrales that never took place because Castillo failed to make the lightweight limit.
OK, is anybody not in litigation with somebody else in boxing? The bottom line is that no other sport is beset by such contentiousness between the power-brokers and decision-makers that influence the direction of the industry. Lawsuits, promoters that refuse to work with each other, and networks who only do business with a select few, are helping to choke off this game.
The fights need to be inside the ring, not in courtrooms.
“Listen, I think we’re killing the sport, we’re killing each other off and unless everybody starts becoming civil and starts recognizing contracts and starts recognizing contracts and starts talking to one another, it’s gonna kill the sport,” says Shaw, to whom mixed martial arts must look better each day. “Nobody?s high and mighty, Richard Schaefer’s gotta come off his crown and be a regular promoter and meet other promoters and talk and whatever. Nobody is above anybody.”
Or seemingly beneath each other too, unfortunately.
SHAW ON PAC
So what advice does Shaw have for Pacquiao, another former fighter of his?
?If I was Manny Pacquiao I would just leave my purse with the Nevada commission because he’s going to need it for all the attorneys that he’s going to have to pay.”
NO CHANCE
For Miami Hurricane fans, Thursday night will be a great day as it will most likely mark the end of the Larry Coker era at UM.
And on that, Shaw would state: “I felt all along, Richard, Oscar, Shane and Jin Mosley’s rights were as good as Larry Coker staying with the University of Miami.”
AND FINALLY
With all that, Happy Thanksgiving to all.
