In an indication that business manager Rod Nazario is close to him and still very much a part of his team, Ring Magazine featherweight champion Manny Pacquiao picked him up in his Lincoln Navigator van at the Los Angeles airport upon his arrival from Manila yesterday.
Later, the two had dinner at Sizzlers, along with Filipino trainer Buboy Fernandez, Nazario?s son Roberto and a friend Greg Asuncion.
In an overseas telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard, Nazario said Pacquiao gave him a copy of the contract he signed with his new manager Shelly Finkel and said ?it was similar to the boxer-manager contracts of our Games and Amusements Board.?
However, Nazario said he would study the contract overnight before his scheduled meeting with Finkel today.
Nazario said ?Manny seems to be okay? and in good shape for the March 19 showdown with Erik Morales at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. He disclosed that Pacquiao was at the Bernard Hopkins-Howard Eastman fight with trainer Freddie Roach after international promoter Murad Muhammad got them tickets.
However, Pacquiao was not shown on TV or introduced to the crowd at the Staples Center because, according to Nazario, ?this was a promotion of Oscar de la Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions and they didn?t want to publicize another group.?
The bias of the De la Hoya group was made obvious by the fact that De la Hoya?s fighter, Marco Antonio Barrera, was shown at special ringside while Pacquiao, who annihilated Barrera in an 11th-round TKO on Nov. 15, 2003, was ignored.
