SULAIMAN SAYS PACQUIAO ILL-ADVISED, MISGUIDED
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 01 Jun 2007
WBC president Jose Sulaiman says Manny Pacquiao is “ill-advised and misguided” in turning down the opportunity for a mandatory title shot at WBC super featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, the respected WBC chairman who just celebrated his 76th birthday revealed that the WBC Board of Governors was contemplating supporting a 50-50 split of the purses of Marquez and Pacquiao if there were no successful free negotiations and it went to a purse bid set for June 18 at the WBC headquarters.
Sulaiman said it was clear that the usual 75-25 split in favor of the champion would not be followed since “nobody can deny that Pacquiao is the top super featherweight fighter of today and we all believe that they both deserve equal purses.” Sulaiman couldn’t hide his disappointment over Pacquiao’s rejection of the mandatory challenge offer. Pacquiao asked the WBC to name someone else as mandatory challenger in a three-paragraph letter prepared by Michael Koncz who is reportedly an adviser but is believed to be Top Rank promoter Bob Arum’s eyes and ears in Team Pacquiao.
Sulaiman said “I am very disappointed and very unhappy” over Pacquiao’s decision not to fight for the WBC title “throwing away the highest purse of his life and the opportunity to regain the premier world championship of boxing.” He said winning the WBC gold and green belt was “the dream of most fighters in the world” and it would have helped establish “who is better between Marquez and Pacquiao” following their controversial draw in 2004.
Sulaiman said while neither fighter can think that “he is superior to the other” Marquez holds the world championship and Pacquiao does not. Sulaiman said that “while his ill-advisers might tell Manny the belt is not important the records of boxing in the future will show who is more and who is less as a boxer by the world championship records that are stated forever in history.”
Sulaiman made it clear he wants everybody to be aware that the WBC has “always stood by Manny’s corner” as the organization has always given him “all the opportunities and had even kept him as WBC International champion” which has enabled him to fight twelve round bouts and stay on top of professional boxing.
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