Manny Pacquiao all but ignored Oscar De La Hoya’s ultimatum for him to sign for a fight aganst Marco Antonio Barrera as he affirmed his commitment to stay with Bob Arum’s Top Rank yesterday.
De La Hoya’s Jan. 2 deadline lapsed into history yesterday and boxing’s Golden Boy was left with answering a counter ultimatum issued by Arum for him to agree to a Pacquiao-Barrera fight under the terms of Top Rank.
Both De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and Arum’s Top Rank agree that a Pacquiao-Barrera rematch will benefit all the parties in the equation. The only trouble is the date and which promotional outfit gets to handle the fight.
De La Hoya wants a March 17 fight date while Arum is insisting on an April 28 encounter. Pacquiao prefers the Arum schedule.
In fact, Pacquiao yesterday released his itinerary for the first quarter of 2007 and it doesn’t include a return to the ring in March indicating that Golden Boy Promotions will have to make the adjustment and not Top Rank.
Pacquiao’s position is also an apparent reaffirmation that his tie up with Arum is stronger although his signing a seven-fight contract with GBP last November appears to be a live document.
It is expected that De La Hoya will go to court to exercise his promotional hold on Pacquiao’s next fights.
Arum got into the mix with devastating consequences when he was able to convince Pacquiao to sign a contract extending his control of the Filipino’s next fights during a surprise visit to the Philippines two weeks ago.
“Manny has decided that he is going to stay with Top Rank as his partner,” said Pacquiao lawyer Jeng Gacal in a statement released yesterday from General Santos City. “We have not accepted any formal letter from Golden Boy Promotions regarding the Jan. 2 deadline that GBP issued (to media outlets in the US).”
The deadline lapsed yesterday and Team Pacquiao didn’t seem concerned that it had already expired.
Gacal said Arum, unlike GBP, will formally send an offer sheet to Barrera and GBP in relation to the .5 million purse and upside on the pay-per-view revenue for a planned duel between the Filipino icon and the Mexican hotshot on April 28.
“GBP will be given 10 days to decide whether they’ll accept or reject the offer (of Top Rank), said Gacal.
If Barrera and Golden Boy reject Top Rank’s offer, Arum will go ahead with a planned slugfest between Pacquiao and somebody else on April 28 at the Wynn Casino and Hotel in Macau.
Arum said there is an abundance of top 10 fighters on the list that are being looked at and Gacal remembered reading names of candidates from Japan, South Africa and Mexico.
It could not yet be determined if they are Nobuhito Honmo, the reigning Orient-Pacific champion from Japan, Malcolm Klassen, the current International Boxing Federation champion in the 130 lbs. ranks from South Africa or Guadalupe Rosales and Humberto ‘Zorrita’ Soto of Mexico.
But GBP said that it has all the high-profile fighters that will command big bucks for Pacquiao.
Aside from Barrera, GBP also has Juan Manuel Marquez of Mexico and Joan Guzman of the Dominican Republic.
Arum said during his visit to Manila that even if the opponent is not Barrera, Pacquiao could still earn a lot since they wouldn’t be shelling out a huge amount of money considering the choice of foe.
Income from such a fight can also be generated from TV rights and pay-per-view in the US and the Philippines.
