KONCZ CLAMS UP, WANTS ENERGIES DEVOTED TO WORKING TO RESOLVE OUTSTANDING ISSUES
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 01 Feb 2015
Manny Pacquiao?s longtime adviser Michael Koncz appears to have realized that negotiating through the media and trying to put pressure on Floyd Mayweather Jr to agree to fight Pacquiao as planned on May 2 hasn?t worked and he has decided to clamp up to questions and answer ?No comment.?
In a text message he sent to us and other members of the media, Koncz said ?I have been getting numerous calls from reporters over the past couple of days asking what are the latest developments in the Manny and Floyd saga and my official reply is no comment.?
Koncz amplified by telling us that it is his contention ?that we (all people privy to the negotiations) should spend less time giving information and stories to the media (whether factual or fictional) and devote our time, energies and efforts in coming to an amenable resolution of the outstanding issues if possible.?
He added ?thereafter there will be ample information and time for the media.?
Koncz message came not long after Top Rank promoter Bob Arum spoke to Peter Musgni of ABS-CBN on ?Teka Muna?, a show Musgni hosts on Saturdays 7-8 p.m. p.m. on dzMM Teleradyo and told him he didn?t know, as previously reported, that the fight was a ?done deal.?
Arum said ?Negotiations going on and there are still issues. We are going to sort through everything and we?ll see in the next few days whether its possible to make a deal.?
Asked whether he was aware of the meetings between Pacquiao and Mayweather before and while it was happening, Arum replied ?obviously I didn?t know before about the meeting at the Arena (at halftime of the Miami Heat-Milwaukee Bucks game) . I knew Manny was going to the game but he was surprised as we all were that Mayweather showed up at the game as well but Mayweather goes to a lot of Miami games so that was not unusual for Mayweather.?
Informed that Mayweather had requested to meet with Pacquiao in his hotel suite Arum said he told them ?by all means let him come over. See what he has to say.?
As to whether the meetings between Pacquiao and Mayweather signaled a breakthrough and made the fight closer than it ever was, Arum said ?like all these fights there are details and I have to see how everything works out. But Manny expressed to me that he believed that Floyd wants to do the fight and of course we know that Manny wants the fight.?
Asked whether Top Rank was being progressively left out of the talks, Arum branded that contention ?silly.? He said ?all the talks are with Top Rank, all of them. Documents go back and forth with our lawyers and the lawyers of Mayweather? and indicated that ?Manny is party to it? and insinuations that Top Rank is being left out are ?insane. Who is the other side going to talk to except us.?
Arum disclosed that he had been told by HBO people that some ?minor details? between HBO and Showtime still have to be resolved. He said ?there is a lot more we have to do because there?s a lot of money involved. It takes times. It's complicated? even as he emphasized that a Pacquiao-Mayweather showdown would be ?the biggest fight of all time? although he conceded there was more interest in the ?Thrilla in Manila? between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier.
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