Is Manny Pacquiao Getting Too Big For His Britches? Doesn’t Sign On The Dotted Line To Fight Ricky Hatton

Even before Manny Pacquiao fought Oscar De La Hoya, he was a known quantity. But it was, in most’s estimation, that his beatdown of the Golden Boy is what brought him to the main stage and told the world he’d arrived. But his petulant behavior that some say plagued his career before the DLH fight has been taken to 11. The best evidence of this is the contract he failed to sign yesterday to fight Ricky Hatton on May 2nd. Hatton’s people, inculding Richard Schaefer of Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, had given Pacquiao and Top Rank Boxing until yesterday to sign, and nothing materialized. Well, Schaefer didn’t like that and called off the fight. Oh, and added this…

“Frankly, I’m disgusted at the behavior of Manny Pacquiao. He’s a spoiled young kid who doesn’t know how to behave.”

Rawr.

Schaefer said he has canceled a press tour with the fighters to promote Pacquiao-Hatton in the U.K. next week, and that he feels as burned as he did about two years ago when Pacquiao accepted a briefcase filled with $250,000 in cash from Schaefer and De La Hoya to join Golden Boy Promotions, then recanted and signed with Bob Arum’s Top Rank promotions.

“I don’t know what he’s thinking,” Schaefer said. “What a waste of time, money and effort. Am I surprised he’s changed his mind? No. He did it to me two years ago. We had booked the planes, the hotels, printed the press kits for the press tour. It was all ready to go, a big production.

We personally don’t see what the problem is. You first mistake was to give a guy a briefcase full of money to make a deal, and then you get pissed when he double crosses you? If a suitcase full of money is indicative of anything, it’s that you should be prepared for the double cross. Only ransoms, drug transactions and political bribes should involve briefcases full of money. You might as well have given it to him in a bag with a huge dollar sign on it. It’s called a cashier’s check. Sure, it’s basically cash, but at least then you have some legal recourse. At least that’s what our lawyer against that slumlord told us.
Hatton calls off fight with Pacquiao [LA Times]
Bob Arum calls Manny Pacquiao to meeting [LA Times]
Image [LA Times]