LOS ANGELES ? A high-ranking member of Manny Pacquiao?s management team bared over the weekend that the Filipino boxing star would maximize his earning potential if he remains a free agent.
“That?s the best thing to do. That?s the best way to get the best fights and the bigger purse,” said the Team Pacquiao insider who asked not to be named owing to the ongoing legal tussle between Bob Arum?s Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions (GBP).
“Why tie yourself with a seven-fight contract with Golden Boy or a four-year deal with Top Rank?”
Following his brutal third round demolition of Erik Morales in Las Vegas last Nov. 18, Pacquiao?s image only grew even larger.
“Logically, staying as a free agent is still the best thing to do. ?He?s Manny Pacquiao. He doesn?t really need any other promoter than himself. The fights will come to him. Then he only has to make a choice which one is better.”
Since moving to the US in mid-2001, Pacquiao has worked with two promoters, Murad Muhammad and Gary Shaw, who actually only figured in one Pacquiao fight ? the rematch with Morales early this year.
Muhammad was Pacquiao?s first promoter and their relationship began from June 2001 until July 2005 after New York fight manager Shelly Finkel and two Beverly Hills lawyers Keith Davidson and Nick Khan entered the picture as Pacquiao?s new set of handlers.
Finkel and company helped Pacquiao get rid of the New Jersey-based Muhammad by tapping noted litigator Judd Burstein. With Muhammad?s exit also came the decision of Filipino Rod Nazario, whose weekly TV program in the Philippines discovered the fighter, to sever ties with Pacquiao.
Finkel?s contract with Pacquiao will lapse on Jan. 31, 2007 and the former rock concert promoter and ex-manager of Mike Tyson as well as key members of the triumphant 1984 Los Angeles Olympics boxing squad, is confident that Pacquiao would still want his services.
It was under Finkel?s watch that Pacquiao managed to pocket rich paydays against Hector Velazquez (0,000) and Morales (rematch million).
Pacquiao earned a whopping million in the Morales rubber match.
