Why Manny Pacquaio keeps Michael Koncz around

Pittsburgh Fight Sports Examiner | Scott Heritage

After reports that Manny Pacquaio's strength trainer Alex Ariza punched out much maligned gofer/agent/adviser Michael Koncz, team Pacquaio seems to be as tumultuous as ever.

Freddie Roach is already embroiled in a well publicized battle of wills with Koncz, and it appears that other members of the team are coming to blows with him as well (In this case literally). All this conflict begs the question of why Manny keeps Koncz around if he can't work well with the rest of his team.

Scenario 1

The most likely reason Manny keeps Koncz around is simply that he likes having a public scapegoat for his own possibly unpopular decisions. Pacquaio is revered like a saint in the Philippines, and obviously wants to keep his image as positive as he can. If he feels that an unpopular choice has to be made, then using Koncz as a mouthpiece is an easy way of deflecting any attention away from himself. Instead of asking what Manny is doing, it instead looks like his evil controlling adviser is behind everything that happens. Of course in reality Pacquaio himself is probably making a lot more of the decisions about his training, sparring partners etc than anyone gives him credit for. This does make a lot of people dislike Koncz, but at the same time Manny can do what he wants without any bad reaction from the fans.

Koncz has been likened to Hitler, called very nearly every offensive name under the sun, and does outwardly appear to be every bit the odious leech. On the other hand this image might all be a carefully cultivated facade concocted by Pacquaio and Koncz making Koncz the devil's advocate.

Scenario 2

It also might be the case that Manny simply likes to have his camp in near open conflict which helps him retain control over his own career. Perhaps he thinks that everyone involved all work harder if they are constantly having to defend their positions against the other side of the conflict. Everyone in his inner circle might feel the needs to justify themselves in case Manny ever decides to clear away the dead wood, and doesn't want to get canned. Because of this, despite whatever else they might say to each other, all members of the crew focus when actually working with Manny himself.

Similarly maintaining two separate sides keeps any one person from having too much influence over Manny himself. Having a running argument in his camp always gives him the option of differing opinions on any subject he could care to mention. Also this stops him from falling into the trap that so any other stars have fallen into by being surrounded by 'yes men'. In this case because if Freddie Roach says one thing, then Michael Koncz will generally disagree, and vice versa.

Scenario 3

The last and least likely scenario is that Manny himself doesn't like the conflict necessarily, and just does his best to keep out of it. Both sides of the split are useful to Manny in their own ways, meaning he doesn't necessarily want to get rid of either of them. Also despite the fact that there appear to be a lot more people on the side of Freddie Roach than Michael Koncz, there might be other ties behind the scenes that we aren't getting to see. Manny has a pretty big crew, and it might well be that there are a lot more people on either side that simply aren't talking about it to the media.

Anyone agree or have any other theories?

Source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-20066-Pittsburgh-Fight-Sports-Examiner~y2009m10d18-Is-camp-Pacquaio-better-off-together-or-apart