Manny to blame for promotional feud -- ESPN

By Dan Rafael, ESPN.com

I didn't have a lot of fun the other day writing about Golden Boy's federal lawsuit against Top Rank, which alleges racketeering and fraud related to millions of dollars Golden Boy contends that Top Rank owes it from three Manny Pacquiao fights.

Stories like that are a real downer, not to mention it takes time and concentration to slog through a 23-page lawsuit, much of it written in legalese, and to listen to the spin from the lawyers on both sides. I could live without that.

But it's an important story in boxing when two of the most powerful promotional companies in the world are fighting over millions related to fights involving the best fighter on the planet, especially because it further strains their already terrible relationship and further reduces the likelihood of seeing Golden Boy's fighters face Top Rank's. That means don't count on seeing such fights as Miguel Cotto-Shane Mosley II, Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez-Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. or Victor Ortiz-Brandon Rios, among others.

The companies have been bitter rivals since the day Oscar De La Hoya left Bob Arum's Top Rank -- who had promoted him for his entire career -- to start his own company almost 10 years ago. There were a few truces along the way, but there is so much water under the bridge at this point that I don't think the companies will ever have a truly friendly relationship. Arum can't stand De La Hoya or his CEO, Richard Schaefer, and vice versa. They've trashed each other for years and, even when they did business together, nobody ever looked comfortable during their co-promotions. And let's not even get into the disaster of their twice-failed negotiations for Pacquiao to face Floyd Mayweather Jr., who has worked with Golden Boy for his recent fights.

When Top Rank and Golden Boy reached a settlement of their various lawsuits against each other in the summer of 2007, thanks to a mediator, we had peace for a couple of years and we got some big fights -- Pacquiao's matches with De La Hoya and Ricky Hatton, his rematches with Marquez and Marco Antonio Barrera and other fights as well, such as Cotto-Mosley and Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik.

When they settled in 2007, the key to the settlement was working out a deal on Pacquiao's contract, which they both believed -- for good reason -- they owned.

In the settlement, Top Rank retained Pacquiao's promotional rights with Golden Boy to share a percentage of Top Rank's profits from his fights. When Pacquiao fought a Golden Boy opponent, it would be the lead promoter, which meant Golden Boy would keep the books. When Pacquiao fought anyone else, Top Rank was in charge of the accounting. The suit filed last week is over the accounting for the fights Pacquiao has had against non-Golden Boy fighters since the settlement, namely David Diaz, Cotto and Joshua Clottey. And you can count on there being more issues after Pacquiao's Nov. 13 fight against Antonio Margarito.

While both companies deserve blame for the complete mess of their relationship, you know who deserves the most blame?

Pacquiao.

Too many people forget, or ignore, that he is responsible for so much of the acrimony.

Remember: Under cover of night in 2006, Pacquiao took a bag stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars from De La Hoya, who had picked him up in a limo at Los Angeles International Airport and whisked him away to a clandestine dinner at a steak house to seal the deal.

De La Hoya, of course, didn't win any points for the inappropriate manner in which he conducted business, especially after he got on his high horse and proclaimed when he founded Golden Boy that it would do business differently than other promoters.

But Pacquiao deserves the blame because he is the one who signed with two companies at the same time. When he took De La Hoya's bag of cash, he apparently forgot that he had just recently signed with Top Rank.

Pacquiao's idiotic move ultimately left the companies mostly at each others' throats since, even though he eventually pledged loyalty to Arum.

Pacquiao has never been held accountable enough for his atrocious judgment. Although questioned about this over the years, he has, at least to my knowledge, never really addressed his disturbing decision in a serious manner.

When asked in the past, Pacquiao has blown off the legitimate question -- "Why did you sign with two companies at once?" -- by smiling his way through it and pulling his best Sammy Sosa. You know that move, the one where you suddenly forgot that you actually can speak English when you don't like the question.

In any case, the next time you get upset because Top Rank and Golden Boy won't make a fight you want to see because of their childish, ongoing feud, you have every right to blame them. But don't forget to include Pacquiao in your crosshairs.

Source: espn.go.com