Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao must cough up $30,000 within the next 15 days or be stripped of his World Boxing Council lightweight title, the WBC said on Thursday. The boxing body's governors, meeting in Cheng Du, are demanding the fighter pay sanctioning fees they say he owes, or they will take his belt. “Manny Pacquiao is a great champion and the pride of the WBC. But he believes he is the ruler of the organization and that is not going to happen,” WBC President Jose Sulaiman told Reuters. “If he doesn't want to do it, he goes his way and we go our way. He has made a fortune with the WBC. He became famous fighting WBC Champions like Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales and now he's trying to kick us in the back and send us home. We cannot do that. “I am very disappointed because he's a friend, he is the hero of President Arroyo and of the whole country of the Philippines, and I feel very bad because of the way that we've been treated. But the phone is there and the door is open.” The WBC is also insisting Pacquiao pay $100,000 within 15 days of his anticipated fight against Oscar De La Hoya or face the same punishment. That non-title fight is set for Dec. 6. Franklyn Gacal, a lawyer for Pacquiao, said he had not received any formal request from the WBC for payment of contingency fees. He told Reuters in a telephone call he was verifying facts and if there was a legitimate shortfall, it would be paid. Fund for fighters WBC President Sulaiman also wants to start a hardship fund for former fighters who have let riches slip through their fingers. The Mexican plans to raise the cash by asking fans to donate a dollar at each of its championship bouts. At the body's annual convention, Sulaiman told Reuters: “We will be able to appoint a committee with people of high respectability to care for and manage the funds.” Sulaiman said the cash would help ex-boxers who had been exploited or who had blown their earnings. However the reaction from promoters attending the Cheng Du congress, ranged from the tender and generous to the hard-nosed. Calzaghe on mission Joe Calzaghe is on a mission to “kick Roy Jones' ---” in their much anticipated “Battle of the Superpowers” at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. Calzaghe's father, trainer and manager Enzo Calzaghe cut through the niceties of mutual admiration in a packed news conference in the cavernous basement of B.B. King's music joint in Times Square on Wednesday. “He wants to box the best out there in Madison Square Garden,” the elder Calzaghe said. “Joe Calzaghe picks fights. He's on one mission only and that's to kick Roy Jones' ---.” “Super” Joe Calzaghe, the 45-0 super middleweight champ, and “Superman” Jones, a world champion in four weight classes, meet in a 12
