Gathering a handful scribes in a cozy Malate restaurant Sunday evening, Pacquiao talked about lessons learned in the past and then bared future plans in handling his career.
"Black and white na lahat simula ngayon," said the Filipino ring idol at the Cafe Adriatico where he and his wife Jinkee hosted a simple get-together with mediamen.
"Magmula ngayon dapat lahat malinaw. Magmula sa fight contracts, pay-per-view shares at ano pa man. Pati sa mga promotions at gloves na gagamitin, nasa kasulatan lahat," he said.
"Para sa susunod, wala nang tanong tanong pa pagkatapos ng laban. Sa simula pa lang, alam na ng lahat kung ano ang tama at dapat," he added.
Pacquiao gamely fielded questions from the scribes who tried to look back at his most recent fight against Mexico’s Erik Morales in Las Vegas.
The fight, which he lost in 12 rounds despite suffering a bloody cut in the fifth, left a string of controversies and raised a lot of questions on how Pacquiao’s career is being managed.
"Totoo ngang para akong candy na matamis. Madaming langgam ang lumalapit," added Pacquiao amid reports of his "bloated" entourage before, during and after the Morales fight.
He briefly talked about his relationship with his American promoter Murad Muhammad whom he has accused of earning more than he did, mainly because of the huge shares the latter drew from the pay-per-view earnings.
"Ang mahirap sa kanya, pag may mga hinihingi akong mga papel, hindi niya mapakita. Malinaw na pag-labag ito sa Muhammad Ali act na nagsasabing lahat ng pinapasok ng promoter, alam dapat ng boxer," he said.
Murad, according to Pacquiao, may have erred in his dealings with HBO (Home Box Office) regarding the pay-per-view shares amounting to millions, and the fight contract which stated the type of gloves to be used in the fight.
Pacquiao claimed that Murad agreed with the use of Winning gloves (Morales’ favorite) against the Reyes gloves (Pacquiao’s favorite). The Filipino was forced to use the former which has thicker paddings and therefore may have taken some power off his punches.
Despite all the controversies surrounding Murad and his last fight, Pacquiao said his trust and confidence remain with Filipino business manager Rod Nazario.
"Lahat ipinagtitiwala ko sa kanya. Pero hindi ko naman sinasabing wala na akong tiwala sa kanya. Meron pa din," he said.
He also tackled Marco Antonio Barrera’s fight with Mzonke Fana whom the reigning WBC and WBA super-featherweight champion stopped cold in two rounds in El Paso, Texas.
"Walang kalatoy-latoy si Fana. Dapat siguro si Randy Suico na lang ang nilaban kay Barrera. Baka mas-maganda pa," said Pacquiao.