by Ronnie Nathanielsz
WBC President Don Jose Sulaiman has advised pound-for-pound king, winner of the coveted “Diamond Belt” and the premier boxing organizations accolade as “Boxer of the Year” Manny Pacquiao to tell Floyd Mayweather Jr that “if he doesn’t want to fight him let him go to hell.”
Sulaiman told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports from his home in Mexico “Manny has had many WBC title fights . He’s always been clean. I know him as a decent, exceptional, clean person and I don’t think it was fair” for such allegations about being on performance-enhancing drugs to be made.
Sulaiman stressed “he shouldn’t worry, he’s clean. If Mayweather doesn’t want to fight him, let him go to hell.”
The WBC president also noted that Golden Boy Promotions and CEO Richard Schaefer don’t like Pacquiao “because they had him before and now he’s not with them and that’s why they attack him this way and it’s not fair.”
Sulaiman said Schaefer “is a very good finance man but he knows very, very little about boxing. He used to be a very nice person but he has changed badly.”
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum who is on holiday in Mexico earlier came out strongly in support of Pacquiao’s decision to sue Schaefer and Floyd Mayweather Sr and his son, undefeated former pound-for-pound No.1 Floyd Mayweather Jr, for libel, slander and defamation.
In an overseas telephone conversation with www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports, Arum said “I am so delighted that he (Pacquiao) is standing up outside the ring like a man, just like he does in the ring.”
Pacquiao had earlier indicated to us that he didn’t wish to dignify the statements made by Mayweather Sr and Schaefer and give them the publicity and attention they were looking for but said in a subsequent statement that enough is enough and that his character and person have been questioned, maligned, damaged and tarnished by baseless and false accusations he has instructed Arum and his own lawyers to file a lawsuit against those who have accused him of taking performance-enhancing drugs without a shred of evidence.
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz told us Sunday afternoon that Pacquiao was spending time with his family while attending to some personal issues in his hometown of General Santos City and that Pacquiao doesn’t wish to say anything more on the topic.
The founding secretary general of the World Boxing Council, eminent lawyer-sportsman Rudy Salud said “I’ve been waiting for them (Pacquiao and Arum) to do that. They have all the right to do that and they will win that case. They cannot deny the statements in which they have accused Pacquiao without any evidence. They are caught. No way for them to get out of that.”
Salud said “now they have to prove their accusations and cannot force him to undergo any test to prove his innocence under any specific system because of the presumption of innocence.” Salud added that in court Pacquiao “can prove that by way of the drug tests conducted by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which they can present as evidence, that he has been tested so many times and found to be clean of any drugs.”
In a statement issued Christmas morning in the Philippines, Pacquiao was quoted as saying “these people think it’s a joke and a right to accuse someone wrongly of using steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs. I have tried to just brush it off as a mere pre-fight ploy but I think they have gone overboard.”
“I have instructed my promoter, Bob Arum, head of Top Rank Inc., to help me out in the filing of the case as soon as possible because I have had people coming over to me now asking if I really take performance-enhancing drugs and I have cheated my way into becoming the No. 1 boxer in the world.”
There are indications that all options would be studied by the top-notch lawyers likely to be retained by Arum and Pacquiao and that libel, slander and defamation suits are expected to be filed against those who made the statements on TV and in several newspapers and internet sites.
Pacquiao was named “Fighter of the Year” by the prestigious Sports Illustrated, was also chosen “Fighter of the Year” twice before and is a cinch to win the award for 2009 and is way ahead of golfing great Tiger Woods in ESPN’s Goodyear “Champion of Champions” balloting. Pacquiao was the first Filipino boxer to appear on the cover of Time Magazine. He has won every conceivable award in the sport and has been acknowledged as the “Hero of Asia” for his achievements in the ring, his humility, his generous assistance to the poor and his concern for his countrymen as well as his help in promoting the careers of other promising Filipino boxers and the unsubstantiated allegations made against him have incensed millions of his countrymen.
Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions have maintained that Mayweather won’t fight Pacquiao unless he took an Olympic-style drug-test handled by the US Anti Doping Agency or USADA. Pacquiao and Arum agreed to be tested one day before the kickoff press conference, 30 days before the fight and immediately after the fight in the dressing room stressing that if he was taking drugs it would surely come out. But Mayweathers handlers insisted on having it their way.
Arum, as a way of saving the fight agreed to have Pacquiao tested by the agency that tests professional players in the NBA, NFL and MBL but that too was turned down, prompting Arum, Pacquiao, celebrated trainer Freddie Roach and conditioning expert Alex Ariza to claim that Mayweather was looking for a way out because he was scared of Pacquiao who was ready to give him, as Ariza said, “the beating of his life.”
Pacquiao, in his statement reiterated what he’s said before, “I maintain and assure everyone that I have not used any form or kind of steroids and that my way to the top is a result of hard work, hard work, hard work and a lot of blood spilled from my past battles in the ring, not outside of it.”
Pacquiao, supported by Arum, Roach and Ariza stated “I have no idea what steroids look like and my fear in God has kept me safe and victorious through all these years.”
In a direct challenge to Mayweather Jr Pacquiao said “don’t be a coward and face me in the ring, mano-a-mano and shut your big, pretty mouth, so we can show the world who is the true king of the ring.”
Pacquiao’s adviser Michael Koncz confirmed to us that Pacquiao, has been contemplating on filing a case against Mayweather Sr. even before the start of his Nov. 14 fight with Miguel Angel Cotto. He said then that he “ did not sue because he did not want to get distracted during that time” because as Pacquiao himself said he was preparing for one of the toughest fights of his career.
Koncz told us that Pacquiao is not against any form of drug testing mandated by any state athletic sports commission and in fact supports the effort to keep all athletic disciplines free of drugs because athletes are role models for the youth. It was noted that Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Keith Kizer has often maintained that Pacquiao has been tested before and after every fight in Las Vegas and had been found free of any performance enhancing drugs or steroids.
