Filipino boxing icon and a hero of Asia, Manny Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz is returning to Manila on Sunday with what Top Rank promoter Bob Arum says is a good proposal which will guarantee that the November 14 fight against WBO welterweight champion Miguel Cotto will happen.
Arum told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that he met with Koncz on Sunday and that Koncz “liked the proposal, went over it, he had some suggestions and he is prepared to present it to Manny.”
Commenting on the sustained media campaign by Shane Mosley and Golden Boy Promotions to try and entice Pacquiao into setting aside a Cotto showdown and to instead fight Mosley, Arum said “Manny is the man they all want to fight because that’s where the money is. Everybody realizes it. I don’t get offended by it, I love it. Let them, let them. It all is publicity.”
Arum said a fight against Cotto “is a dangerous fight for Manny. That’s what makes it a big fight.”
Koncz himself confirmed he met with Arum and their conversations “went very well” even as he conceded that Arum had presented “a good proposal.”
For whatever reason, trainer Freddie Roach has wanted to talk to Pacquiao to make sure that he gets the kind of money he deserves even as he has indirectly supported the Mosley line that Pacquiao could make more money by fighting Mosley.
However, a couple of Team Pacquiao members have indicated Roach should stick to his task as a trainer and not try to involve himself in the business side of Pacquiao’s ring career.
Even the eminent founding secretary general of the WBC, lawyer Rudy Salud has said in the past that he didn’t appreciate Roach’s tendency to try and act as a manager when he is only Pacquiao’s trainer.
While Arum said he is “absolutely sure” that the proposal would be acceptable to Pacquiao and the Cotto fight will go on as scheduled, the announcement by Pacquiao that he wants just one more fight fueled speculation that he is really after a showdown with Floyd Mayweather Jr whose July 18 fight against Juan Manuel Marquez was postponed due to an injury in training camp.
Pacquiao in the meantime sought to live up to his role as a peacemaker following two grenade blasts in Sarangani province where he plans to run for a congressional seat, appealing to the elements responsible for the incidents to “sit down and talk because the people who died or were injured did no wrong. I feel sorry for them and we should help them because we all have families.”
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