Bad Timing & Déjà vu

Pacquiao confidant Rex "Wake" Salud and lawyer Franklin Gacal are being sued by Pacquiao's American managers!!!???

Is this another gimmick or PR move cooked up by the promoters of Manny Pacquiao? Or is this for real?

I wrote awhile back that there seems to be a well organized PR campaign for Pacquiao's upcoming fight against Mexican Oscar Larios, and this included teasers and news on various issues that would add spice to local boxing's biggest event of the year.

But I'm afraid this one doesn't look like being part of the grand script created by the PR team of July 2 "Mano A Mano." Team Pacquiao managers Shelly Finkel, Nicholas Khan and Keith Davidson have filed a suit against Salud and Gacal for "fraud and contract interference" as they negotiated with ABS-CBN for Pacquiao's upcoming fight against Larios. It appears that Finkel and company weren't pleased with the way Salud and Gacal did the nego work for Pacquiao's MP Promotions.

The main point of disagreement? Kwarta! So what else is new? How much is Pacquiao really getting? This seems to be the major issue. Is he receiving all of the $4 Million in this tie-up with ABS-CBN? It has been reported that MP Promotions is receiving $4 Million from ABS-CBN. From this, $1M will go to Pacquiao as his fight purse, while $3M will be used for the rest of the event. As Pacquiao's managers, Finkel and company are demanding for a share of the $4M and not the $1M purse of Pacquiao. They have reportedly offered various bargaining options in exchange for contract extension-related matters.

Talk about bad timing and deja vu. The filing of the case comes a month before the Pacquiao-Larios fight, and although Pacquiao has said he won't make these things bother him, you can bet that he's going to have sleepless nights and tons of headaches as he goes into the gym everyday (again). I say "again" since this is the second time that legal problems are going to bug him in the middle of training camp.

Remember Pacquiao-Morales 1? It's rather ironic that Finkel and company are involved "again" as they became Pacquiao's new management team when Pacquiao decided to dump the team of Murad Muhammad, Rod Nazario et. al. in a rocky and drama-filled "managers" battle while in the middle of training camp for the first Morales fight. Many attributed Pacquiao's loss to Morales to all the distractions brought about by the switch to another manager and all the mental baggage that came along with it. In sum, he wasn't mentally prepared when he went up the ring and lost the fight even before facing Morales. And now comes this. These might look minor and incidental but I can assure you that if this isn't settled asap, Oscar Larios is going to come out having the last laugh.

The timing is really bad for Pacquiao. But from another perspective, nothing wrong if you were a manager working on a contract extension or for a bigger cut from a fight purse. Let's face it, Pacquiao is one of the world's most popular boxers, and if I were a manager, I'd love to be the one handling his boxing affairs. Wouldn't you? But this is boxing. This is the way it's done and you live with it.

For the record (and as far as I know), Pacquiao has made three major managerial changes in his career: Polding Correa to Marty Elorde to Rod Nazario to Shelly Finkel. With the setting up of MP Promotions, a fourth switch seems to be on deck.

But where does Manny stand in all these? Salud and Gacal have been Pacquiao's local advisers since the latest switch of managers and they seem to have his trust and confidence. I'd like to believe that he was involved in all the transactions with ABS-CBN.

The solution will have to be initiated by Pacquiao himself, but a compromise may be necessary to come out with a win-win situation. The sad part is that this will most likely have to be anchored on money (again).

On Finkel's part, I hope he's settle matters aligned with his first pronouncements when he took over as Pacquiao's manager. He had said that he would take care of the Pacman and make sure that Pacquiao would rightfully get what he deserves in all his fights, being one of the world's marquee boxers something that allegedly didn't happen with the past management.

The big question now is if all this will be settled? We realize that all parties have their own turfs and interests to protect. But in the end, they all have to sincerely work for the best for Pacquiao who happens to be the main star and source of everyone's interest (i.e. income!). If this strategy is followed and everyone is aligned with it, they all stand to gain and will all be happy in the long run.

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Time-out: Happy birthday to Paulo del Rosario & Vince Villanueva! >>> Comments are welcome at [email protected]