Pacman hopes row ends by June

Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao flies to New York in June to see his brother Bobby fight Humberto Soto on June 9 at the Madison Square Garden and gets a toast from the Boxing Writers Association of America as fighter of the year during a formal gathering.

Pacquiao also hopes that officials of Top Rank and Golden Boy will end up sharing the table and try to settle their differences that have caused both parties some amount in legal bills.

Top Rank, of Bob Arum, and Golden Boy, of Oscar dela Hoya, are locked in a legal dispute as both outfits claim to be Pacquiao’s promoter. Making things worse is that they both have contracts signed by the Filipino.

The dispute that started late last year has denied boxing fans the opportunity to see great fights between fighters from Top Rank and Golden Boy.

In this case, it’s Pacquiao for Top Rank, and the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera or Juan Manuel Marquez, the reigning World Boxing Council super-featherweight champion, for Golden Boy.

Not unless the issue is settled with things really clear up for a possible rematch between Pacquiao against either Barrera or Marquez. Otherwise, it will once again be Pacman versus someone else by the end of the year.

The other day, Top Rank president Todd DuBoef suggested in New York "that the warring parties sit down at the table of boxing brotherhood and work things out so that Pacman and the crew of Pacman likely opponents that GBP handles can grow and prosper with big bouts."

Michael Marley of boxingconfidential.com reported that Arum has cited "the mounting legal bills his company and Oscar de La Hoya’s company keep getting from their respective high-priced law firms as they squabble over the promotional rights to Filpino ring idol Manny Pacquiao."

DuBoef said he hasn’t received any reply from GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer.

"But I hope we can (set) things aside and make some of the great matches. Maybe they’ll do what we do and look at those big legal bills that keep coming in. But we’ve had no call from them," Duboef told boxingconfidential.com.

DuBoef admitted that Pacquiao is currently busy with his political plans, but hoped that the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter will be ready to tackle the latest on his boxing career at least two weeks after the May 14 elections in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Freddie Roach has flatly denied a story that said he and his long-time assistant Justine Fortune had gone separate ways just days after Pacquiao knocked out Mexican Jorge Solis in San Antonio.

Reports came out of philboxing.com that Roach and Fortune argued over the trainer’s fee as Top Rank issued a check under Fortune’s name.

Roach told Brad Cooney of boxingconfidential.com that he knew nothing about the reported "split-up."