It might be one of his last great fights. The man is going-on-76 now. But Bob Arum will either solidify his business relationship with Manny Pacquaio or go down swinging.
And Arum has something that neither manager Shelly Finkel, trainer Freddie Roach nor rival promoter Golden Boy Promotions can claim. In the person of controversial agent Michael Koncz, Arum has an operative who stays on Pacman’s trail day and night.
Koncz, a shadow figure in Pacland, is said to be a Canadian attorney who moved to Orange County and got into the boxing business. All you have to do is mention Koncz’s name to almost all of the dramatis personae in the Pacman soap opera and you will hear negative comments about him.
The detractors say he follows Pacman into the men’s room.
They say that Roach has barred him from the Wild Card Gym in LA, the trainer’s headquarters.
Rex Wakee Salud, a Pacman adviser favorable to Top Rank and Arum, calls him “a traitor and backstabber” for, among other things, refusing Salud an in ring credential for the Pacquaio-Morales fight Nov. 18.
They say he owes money to Roach. Roach says the stealth agent “is ruining Manny’s career.”
They also say he hustled boxer Diosdado Gabi out of the PI without the knowledge or consent of his manager. Gabi is now being handled by Roach who said the fighter left Koncz because the agent “mistreated” him.
Yet this is the devil that Arum knows, the devil that Arum uses as his emissary to Pacman.
Does Koncz have Manny’s ear? He seems to for it is Koncz who claims to have convinced the fighter to hire Las Vegas William Coulthard as “an independent adviser.” And he is the co-manager of Manny’s fighting brother, Bobby. The ubiquitous Koncz is also the U.S. agent for rising Filipino boxer Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista who is trained by, you guessed it, Koncz’s sworn enemy, Roach.
And Koncz makes no bones about being a man on a mission in General Santos City, Pacman’s hometown.
“I’m here to do a job,” Koncz said, “and I will stay here as long as Manny wants me and needs me here.”
Many in the know say you should substitute “as long as Bob Arum needs me here to sway Manny” into that declaration.
Arum’s loyal liege laid the groundwork for Arum’s current visit to the PI. It is Koncz who will get Arum into Pacman’s new seven bedroom mansion.
Arum is no Bad Santa. He comes offering a package worth well over $1 million which can go right into the Pacman pocket. He also offers an umbrella of litigation protection for Pacquaio.
“Golden Boy, using Roach as their inside man, gave Pacman a bonus of $150,000 for a seven fight deal,” a well informed source tells me. “There was an advance on purses of $300,000. After Manny then made a deal with Top Rank that money was returned to Golden Boy.”
Arum’s Happy New Year offer is this: Pacman takes down $1 million (nonrefundable) merely for signing a new and more extensive contract. Knowing that some around Pacman have him worried about Golden Boy’s litigation, Arum has strengthened the indemnification clause in the deal meaning that, should GBP win in court, Pacman’s liablities will have to be paid in full by Top Rank.
“This is the kind of move Don King used to make,” the source said. “The great promoters hustle like that. At 75, do you think Arum or his wife, Lovee, wanted him to fly to Manila and possibly spend New Year’s Eve there? No way, but Arum views this as a very personal thing between he and Golden Boy. He views Oscar de la Hoya and Richard Schaefer the way Dr. Frankenstein viewed the monster he created and who turned against him.”
The question arises: where do all these machinations leave manager Finkel, whose deal expires the end of January. Finkel has some legal moves of his own to make whether he is renewed by Pacman or not. Finkel has solid tortious interference cases against GBP and Top Rank, if he chooses to press them, since both promotional deals were done without his involvement.
No matter how it shakes out, you can be sure the man in the shadows, Top Rank’s stealth agent Koncz, will be a key figure in the resolution.
“Koncz has not played his trump card yet,” the source said. “The trump card is conducting a campaign of propaganda to convince Manny to dump Roach. If Manny casts his lot with Top Rank and then fires Roach, Koncz will have achieved all his goals.”
As the Pacman world spins….
