FROM ALI TO PACQUIAO, MURAD MUHAMMAD IN HIS OWN WORDS PT. 14: FINKEL AND THE PACQUIAO THIEVES

By Percy Crawford | February 24, 2010

"They called me a thief. They told Pacquiao that I had a $40 million contract with HBO that I was hiding from him. Ross Greenburg wouldn't even give me a $5 million contract. They said that I was hiding $4 million extra from him and for a lousy $30,000 from 3 men...a lousy $30,000 from 2 lawyers that came in from nowhere and Shelly Finkel in a rented Navigator...they stole Pacquiao...They whispered in this kid's mind. The trainer [Freddie Roach] was upset, thinking that I was beating Pacquiao, but Pacquiao would not tell the trainer that he was making $200,000, $400,000, $500,000 because he didn't want to give the trainer 10% of the gross money. The fact was that they tricked this kid to get away from me," stated promoter Murad Muhammad as he revealed more details about Manny Pacquiao, including what happened to cause their split and the fallout from the lawsuit. Don't miss this behind-the-scenes look into the history of the sport as Murad himself tells his story in his own words. From Muhammad Ali to Manny Pacquiao, he has worked alongside some of the biggest names in boxing and you don't want to miss more of his extremely revealing tales. Check it out...

Now that the fight is on, we hit a homerun. HBO said we would do 175,000 [pay-per-view buys] and some of the critics were saying we wouldn't do that. We hit 400,000; 4-something. We made 12 million dollars in revenue and guess what? They called me a thief. They told Pacquiao that I had a $40 million contract with HBO that I was hiding from him. Ross Greenburg wouldn't even give me a $5 million contract. They said that I was hiding $4 million extra from him and for a lousy $30,000 from 3 men...a lousy $30,000 from 2 lawyers that came in from nowhere and Shelly Finkel in a rented Navigator...they stole Pacquiao. On the strength that Murad Muhammad...everybody trys to say that I stole, but they couldn't say that because they couldn't find nowhere where I stole from fighters. So they said I didn't protect him [Pacquiao] from his thief manager [Rod Nazario] and they brought me in a courtroom on that messed up charge.

The theif manager, the one that they called a theif, had lent Pacquiao money and if I can recollect, he [Pacquiao] owed him a hundred and something thousand dollars before that fight [vs. Morales]. He loaned that to him. He had nothing to steal from. They said he [Nazario] stole his tax money. Well hell, what could taxes have been? Were they late paying it? Later on, we found out, but that don't cause you to be a thief. They filed their taxes every year. They said that I tricked Pacquiao and created a company in America and all of this; and that killed the manager. He had a heart attack because he had a good name over there [in the Philippines]. He was one of the most honorable men. I'm going to show you how honorable he was. You can print this. Shelly Finkel said to me, "Murad, we can make a lot of money together." I said, "Shelly, my father taught me to marry a woman if you're in love with her because a marriage is lifetime. I don't marry a man that says one thing today and does something else tomorrow. I've seen you outright lie. I care not to have you for a partner." He said, "Well I'm going to cause you a lot of trouble." I said, "Bring it on."

They whispered in this kid's mind. The trainer [Freddie Roach] was upset, thinking that I was beating Pacquiao, but Pacquiao would not tell the trainer that he was making $200,000, $400,000, $500,000 because he didn't want to give the trainer 10% of the gross money. The fact was that they tricked this kid to get away from me and the kid caused problems for one of the most loyal human beings [Rod Nazario] that I have ever met in the business. He comes from a family of loyalty. In America, that stuff [accusations] can die out, but in the Philippines, he had to live with being called a thief and a robber of one of the greatest fighters that ever lived in the Philippines. So the guy had a heart attack and he died a few months ago. I don't care what nobody says, Pacquiao killed him! He brought grief to his heart and it's a shame, but there was nothing I could do about it. But in the courtroom, the only thing that I can tell you, because if anybody tells you what happened in that courtroom, they are liable for a lawsuit, so either they're lying or they are willing to take a risk of a lawsuit, but this was a cold judge. Nobody knows what that settlement is, but I will tell you this, I believe I had them.

The judge said to Judd Bernstein, "Counselor, we've been here for 3 days and I think you got the wrong man in this courtroom." He didn't like that. Judd said the judge was prejudiced. I turned to my lawyer and said, "What is he doing?" He said, "He's taking a risk!" The judge said, "Prejudiced?" Judd said, "Yes. When I make a statement, you chuckle and when I try to make a point to the jury, you make a suggestion." The judge said, "Well, I have to apologize counselor. I have to watch myself. I didn't know I was doing that." I went to the window to make prayer and when I came out of prayer, my man walked over to me and he said, "They want to settle." That's a true story and nobody got no lien on that. So I said, "Let's settle." My guy said to me, "Settle? Are you out of your mind? You got this case won? You did a magnificent job." I said, "I was taught by my father, a good name is better than gold." I said, "My name is bigger than money. Money comes and money goes. I don't live in this world for money; I live in this world for good character. I'm not a thief. I don't know what that jury might do, so if they want to settle, let's settle. That's the break in the case." They attacked me for a week in their presentation. They brought up an incident that happened when I was a child, a youngster. I said, "That's all we can do here? We're supposed to be here to talk about how I supposedly robbed a boxer for the first time in my life or allowed someone to steal American taxes. And I condoned it when this guy was getting a big piece of Pacquiao? For the first time, he was going to make some money. Why would he steal some little tax money?" And he speaks broken English, but I'm in cahoots with him now to let him steal, not to let him give me money, but let him steal from Pacquiao? I turned to Pacquiao and I said, "God don't like ugly. You might win this case, but you're not going to win the war."

I walked away from the case. I gave them what they wanted. One of my stipulations, and I'm sure I can't get sued for this, but I told them they could not touch Rod Nazario. I can't tell you what I gave for it, but I can tell you that was one of my stipulations. I said, "You do not touch Rod Nazario." Now, that man is deceased. May God be pleased with his soul, separate his faults with his goodness and God, separate the East from the West and grant him paradise and bless his family that lives today because he was an honorable man; one of the most honorable men I have ever seen in my life. He was not tricky. He didn't know how to talk tricky; just plain and right to the point. I told him, I said, "If this was in the 30's, they would kill any individual that stands in the way of making big money. But this is modern technology times and nobody wants to go to jail for murder, so they're going to come at us in a different way. And I'm telling you Pop," I used to call him, "Pop, stop letting your baby come in here by himself." I knew that they would poison his mind and I don't fault Pacquiao. He comes from a third world country, so they did this big thing of putting him in that luxury car and taking him out of the hotel where he trains at right now today, because it's tradition. He's a very superstitious guy. He will not change anything that he is successful with. He goes into the same old gym [L & M Gym] and hits the bag, I don't care if it's just for 2 minutes, before he gets on the plane.

He asked to be in that hotel. You don't think we could have put him in a mansion? He didn't want to be in a mansion. I could get all of those suites in that building. You think I couldn't get Pacquiao his own suite? He didn't care about no suite. He wanted to sleep on the floor with his native people because he had that sensitivity like that. He liked the hotel because he was with all of his people. I wanted to take him here and there and he'd say, "No Murad, let's stay here." I said, "Pacquiao, why don't you take a suite?" He goes, "No, no, no Murad. I stay here on the floor with my people." But that made people think that all of the hotels I done been in and all of the suites that I done been in, and I've been in Michael Jackson's suite and Ol' Blue Eyes' suite; I have been in the best suites in the world before Pacquiao, but yet, I'm going to steal Pacquiao's suite? That is a lie. It's a lie, but they had to fabricate it and then they had diabolical writers feeding the Filipinos those lies. They had to because the Filipinos loved Murad. I had 60,000 people in the Philippines screaming, "Thank you Murad! He must be a good Christian!" I tell Muslims today, "We don't wear our religion on our sleeves. A man's character, whether he's Christian, Muslim or Jew, is supposed to be a good character." So if I'm in a Christian country, like America, and somebody says, "My God, you're a good Christian," I take that as a compliment because it's a Christian country. Now, if I was in an Islamic country, and they say, "My God, you're a great Christian," well now, I take it as an insult. But if I was a Christian in a Islamic country and they say, "My God, you are a good Muslim," then I would take that as a compliment. Everybody's character is supposed to be good character, good decent human beings, so I treat people the way I want to be treated.

I was loved in the Philippines. I had pictures with the President; my arms around the President. The FBI said I was the cleanest one in boxing and they never caught me for anything, but yet, I'm a crook? Only one man had license in New Jersey, one man, where they checked my bank accounts, my mother, my father my sister and my wife. I went through 4 years of scrutiny, 4 years of coming behind my desk at will, 4 years of opening my checkbook and taking checks out to find out if I'm involved in anything illegal. I received those licenses and they were called Casino Control Licenses. Don King went for them and ran; and Arum never filed for them, but someone said he did and he wouldn't go all the way. I can go under oath and you could ask me anything you would like and I'm going to tell you the truth, so not just once, I got them in 1982 and then I turned around and got them in 2002. Man, if I was a crook, why didn't the federal government find out I was a crook? But you had these pea-brains that called themselves a part of boxing saying, "He's a crook, he's a thief and he writes bounced checks." I don't write bounced checks brother. That's an outright lie. I done paid everybody. Everybody that was supposed to get what they got, got it. So they lied on me and they used that to make people think it. One guy wrote 80 articles. He must've made a living doing it. If you look at him, he looks like a freak, but you gotta be a real freak to pay attention to just me, unless I'm just that big. He named me Scarface and everything that I had never dreamed of, but I didn't dignify it. It faded away, but it was designed.

BE SURE TO CHECK BACK FOR PART 15 (OH YEAH...WE'VE GOT MORE) AS MUHAMMAD REVEALS MUCH MORE ABOUT HIS YEARS AS HIS PROMOTER

CLICK HERE FOR PART 1 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 3 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 4 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 5 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 6 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 7 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 8 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 9 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 10 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 11 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 12 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE

CLICK HERE FOR PART 13 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE