MANNY Pacquiao’s decision to turn his back on a seven-fight contract he signed in mid-September with Oscar de la Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and to stick with Top Rank’s Bob Arum with whom he signed a second contract that was announced last Nov. 18 at the Grand Finale post-fight press conference, has drawn arch-rivals De la Hoya and Arum into a bitter legal battle.
But while the protagonists wait for the courts to decide, fight fans especially millions of Filipinos, who have been mesmerized by Pacquiao’s explosive performances in the ring, are concerned over what the future holds for the Pacman.
Arum has made it clear that he is proceeding to arrange a fight for Pacquiao on April 28 in the gambling enclave of Macau, which is now under the administrative control of China and where the casinos are drawing the high rollers from a burgeoning Chinese clientele.
He said he had given Pacquiao a list of nine possible opponents and left it up to Pacquiao and his closest advisers, whoever they may be at a given moment, to choose who he wishes to fight. An insider, who may well be an outsider in the next few hours depending on how the wind blows and who has Pacquiao’s ear, told us that one leading opponent being considered is International Boxing Federation champion Malcolm Klassen of South Africa, a comparative unknown. There was also the possibility that World Boxing Council’s no. 2-ranked Humberto Soto, a Mexican handled by Arum himself, may emerge in the short list of candidates to take on Pacquiao.
De la Hoya indicated he was puzzled by Arum’s claim he had nine opponents lined up “because we have all the top guys,” which includes Marco Antonio Barrera, Juan Manuel Marquez and Joan Guzman, among others.
Among some of those being considered by Pacquiao are WBC no. 4 Guadalupe Rosales, a 25-year-old Mexican with a record of 21-1 with 13 KOs, WBC no. 6 and reigning Oriental Pacific Boxing Federation champion Nobuhito Honmo of Japan, WBC no. 9 Francisco Lorenzo of the Dominican Republic, the current WBC Caribbean super featherweight champion, Japan’s Yusuke Kobori, who is listed no. 12 by the WBC and no. 14 Brazilian Agnaldo Nunes.
None of them are even remotely considered likely to cause Pacquiao trouble and no matter what the drawing power of the Filipino ring icon, he is unlikely to pull in the pay-per-view numbers he did in his three fights with legendary Mexican Erik “El Terrible” Morales, which totaled over 1.1 million buys for the three fights.
Rosales is the Mexican and Latino champion, who scored a unanimous 12-round decision over Zaid Zavaleta last Aug. 18 and hasn’t lost a fight since dropping a split decision to James Baker, of the United States, on May 9, 2002.
Honmo is 29 years old and stands around 5’7” and has a record of 29-4-2 with only 5 KOs, which indicate he doesn’t pack any power. He boxed his way to the OPBF title last May 20, scoring a unanimous 12-round decision over Jimrex Jaca, who put up a gallant stand against Marquez before being stopped in the ninth round of a WBC featherweight title fight late last year.
Lorenzo is an aging fighter at 35 with a record of 27-3 with 14 knockouts, although he has battled some good opponents. In July 2003, he dropped a 10-round decision to current world lightweight champion Juan Diaz and in June 2005, won a split decision over talented Nate Campbell, while in December 2005, Lorenzo won the Caribbean Boxing Federation title with a sensational first-round KO of Blas Pena. In his last fight on Dec. 1, 2006, Lorenzo won an eight-round decision over Cristobal Cruz.
The 27-year-old Kobori boasts of an 18-2-1 slate with 9 KOs. In January last year, Kobori won the vacant Japanese super featherweight crown with a second-round TKO of Keita Manabe. On May 6, 2006, he scored an impressive sixth-round TKO over Kazunori Fujita who, on June 21, 2003, lost a 10-round unanimous decision to then OPBF junior lightweight champion Randy “Komong Bato” Suico.
Kobori lost a unanimous 10-round decision to Honmo in a battle for the Japanese super featherweight title in January 2003 and earlier, on July 15, 2001, suffered a second-round TKO at the hands of then OPBF champion Tiger Ari of the Philippines.
Looming in the background is Edwin Valero, the Venezuelan whirlwind, who last Wednesday scored his 21st knockout victory in 22 fights, 20 of them coming in the very first round. After crushing Mexican challenger Michael Lozada in a mere 72 seconds, the southpaw Valero, who is regarded as a devastating puncher, blasted Pacquiao for comments he made some months ago when he ridiculed him, saying his victims were “tricycle drivers.”
Valero didn’t think it was funny and retaliated by saying: “I want Manny next. Hope Arum is listening. I don’t want to hear a lot of excuses from Manny to fight me this time. If our fight will happen, he will realize that he, too, is a cab driver.”
But Arum is smarter than that. While he knows Valero could pose some problems for Pacquiao, he is more concerned about what kind of money can be made out of a Pacquiao-Valero showdown at this time especially since Valero hasn’t been seen by fight fans in the US since he hasn’t been cleared to fight there after a head injury suffered in a motorcycle accident. Not being a Mexican, he hasn’t also attracted the Hispanics which means, Valero needs to be built up first before he enters the ring against Pacquiao.
Arum told us that he plans to have Valero, who is handled by influential Japanese promoter Akihiro Honda, fight on the undercard of Pacquiao’s fights—“so people will see and say this guy punches so hard and Manny is in danger and we will eventually build it up to where it will become a huge worldwide event and it should be.”
The Top Rank honcho noted that Valero is a sensational puncher and a good fighter and although he was pretty sure Pacquiao could handle him, Arum said “it is still a very good competitive fight that people will be talking about.”
Pacquiao, no matter how much fight fans regard him as a people’s champion and how much he himself believes he doesn’t need a belt to prove his worth, needs a recognized title to truly establish his legendary status. This is what Klassen provides—the IBF crown in what could well be nothing more than a somewhat strenuous workout.
The South African, who won the title via a split decision over Gary St. Clair, who at one time claimed Pacquiao was avoiding him. The win last Nov. 4 improved Klassen’s record to 19-3-2 with 10 KOs, which is not something that will put fear into Pacquiao’s heart or attract fight fans to part with their dollars for a pay-per-view buy in the US.
The 26-year-old Soto, who has a far more impressive record of 40-5-2 with 24 knockouts, looks like a much more attractive proposition business-wise, especially since he is Mexican and is ranked one rung below Pacquiao by the WBC, where Barrera rules as champion at present.
De la Hoya cautioned Pacquiao about Soto, who stands 5’7” and has had some impressive victories over tough opponents. On Aug. 20, 2005, Soto scored a unanimous 12-round decision over Rocky Juarez to win the WBC interim featherweight title. On Feb. 17 last year, he scored a ninth-round TKO over Oscar Leon, who had a record of 27-6 with 18 KOs and had dropped split decisions to former champion Derrick Gainer and later to Chris John. Soto followed up his win over Leon with a fourth-round TKO over Ivan Valle in a WBC super featherweight title eliminator on Aug. 12 last year.
There are efforts to push WBC president Jose Sulaiman to strip Barrera of the title for his alleged refusal to defend against Pacquiao, which is certainly not a totally accurate statement. Barrera has often said in the recent past that he wanted a re-match with Pacquiao so he could avenge his embarrassing loss in November 2003, when he was demolished in 11 rounds.
In fact, Golden Boy Promotions, which handles Barrera, and also believes quite strongly that they have the right to promote Pacquiao, offered Pacquiao a 50-50 deal to fight Barrera on March 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. But Arum stepped in and made what he considered a counter-offer of $2.5 million to Barrera and a share of the pay-per-view revenues beyond a certain point.
Golden Boy Promotions’ chief executive Richard Schaefer shot the Arum proposal down, telling Viva Sports/Standard Today that “it is not up to Bob Arum to respond to our offer since he has no promotional rights to Manny Pacquiao and therefore we do not intend to negotiate with him.”
Schaefer made it clear they didn’t want to stand in the way of a fight the two fighters want and an overwhelming majority of fight fans want. Schaefer said their offer was not intended as a negotiation, but represented “a fair and lucrative offer to make this fight a reality.”
In what may have been a last-ditch effort to save the day, Shelly Finkel, who was described in a Fight News article as an accomplished boxing manager with a “savvy business acumen,” offered Pacquiao a minimum guarantee of $5 million, but while the Filipino champ told this writer “I like it. That’s good,” it ended right there and Finkel gave up conceding they were playing games and he simply wished Pacquiao the best of luck.
Emphasizing that they were not willing to sit around and wait, De la Hoya said they finalized a deal for Barrera to fight Marquez on March 17. The announcement drew a somewhat cocky remark from Pacquiao, who said there was no need for him to chase Barrera, as it was the Mexican, who needed to chase him because he had beaten him once before.
What Pacquiao obviously forgot was that it was Barrera, the legendary Mexican, who gave him the big opportunity to make a name for himself. It was clearly the victory over Barrera that made fight fans sit up and take notice of Pacquiao and was the fight that thrust him into the limelight and took him to another level in the public esteem both here at home and abroad.
It doesn’t seem likely, despite the hopes of some individuals around Pacquiao, that the WBC will strip Barrera of the title for his failure to go through with a mandatory title defense against Pacquiao, because of intervening events such as the contractual conflict that has resulted in Golden Boy suing Top Rank for tortuous interference in their seven-fight contract signed in mid-September filed with the Superior Court in Los Angeles and Arum’s suit in Las Vegas, asking the courts to rule on which contract was valid.
In fact, WBC president Jose Sulaiman in a letter addressed to both Barrera and Pacquiao, a copy of which Sulaiman sent to us, stated that the purse bid set for Jan. 12 had been suspended and that the WBC was “researching the situation and will continue to doing it until the clarification of the facts for the free negotiations.”
Now that Barrera is signed to fight Marquez and Arum is scheduling a fight for Pacquiao on April 28, there would be no real basis for Barrera to be stripped of the title.
De la Hoya, like most fight fans, was disappointed that the Pacquiao-Barrera fight could not be made.
“It’s very unfortunate that a big fight like Barrera vs Pacquiao could not be made because of the interference of Bob Arum,” De la Hoya told this writer on the phone. “It’s very sad to see Manny Pacquiao misguided by people who are supposed to look after his best interests.”
In fairness to Arum, the 75-year-old Harvard- educated lawyer spoke openly about the possibility of doing a co-promotion with Golden Boy on a Pacquiao-Barrera re-match.
“Of course, I would,” said the astute Arum, playing his cards to the hilt before Philippine media, adding “I wouldn’t slight them. I have no animosity in that regard. They can have their name in the promotion. I would be happy to pay them Barrera’s share and let them pay Barrera. I would be happy to agree with them that they would put an undercard fight on. No problem there.”
De la Hoya and Schaefer maintained their line that Arum was not Pacquiao’s promoter and they were not prepared to deal with him. De la Hoya said he was not really sure when the lawsuit he filed against Top Rank can be pursued, pointing out it was “in the judge’s hands and we are going to take it from there. We feel very, very strongly that we are the promoters of Manny Pacquiao.”
De la Hoya didn’t lay the blame squarely on Pacquiao for what celebrated trainer Freddie Roach termed “a mess.”
“I don’t think Manny is making these decisions. He is being influenced by people who supposedly have his best interests in mind. I just hope that one day Manny wakes up,” said De la Hoya.
Responding to concerns that in the end, Golden Boy might sue Pacquiao for breach of contract, De la Hoya demonstrated his class.
“I didn’t turn promoter to sue fighters,” he said. “I turned promoter to help the sport of boxing. I turned promoter to help the fighters. I just wish that Manny Pacquiao wakes up one day and realizes that Golden Boy will look out for his best interests.”
In a direct address to Pacquiao, De La Hoya said: “From one fighter to another, from one legend to another, my advice for Manny is to stand up for himself. Enough is enough. He has to take control of his life, of his career, of his future. All is good today, but if he continues like this, it’s going to be very difficult to clean up the mess that he has created. It’s never too late to clean it up and it’s never too late to take control of your life.”
