*The world of boxing has a major battle on its hands outside the ring.
The Los Angeles Times reports that established boxing promoter Bob Arum and his company Top Rank, Inc. is suing boxing manager Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. In the 50-page lawsuit which Arum and Top Rank announced Wednesday (July 1), Haymon is being accused of taking various steps to set up a monopoly over Top Rank and other competitors.
“If left unabated, this conspiracy threatens to fatally cripple competition in [boxing], thereby causing substantial and irreversible harm to boxers, legitimate promoters, and consumers,” Top Rank attorney Daniel Petrocelli wrote in the lawsuit.
Top Ranks suit comes after Haymon announced earlier this year that PBC struck time-buy deals to bring boxing on NBC, CBS and ABC in addition to ESPN and other cable networks. The Times noted that PBC’s time-buy deals were made possible with the alleged $400 million backing of Waddell & Reed, a Kansas City, Mo., investment firm after Haymon increased his stable of boxers to 200.
Of course Haymon’s legal eagles vehemently disagree. They even go so far as to say the Top Rank lawsuit is baseless.
“The lawsuit filed today by Bob Arum and Top Rank is entirely without merit and is a cynical attempt by boxing’s old guard to use the courts to undermine the accessibility, credibility and exposure of boxing that the sport so desperately needs,” wrote Barry H. Berke, a spokesman for the firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP.
“The Premier Boxing Champions series makes boxing free again, by bringing championship boxing to free TV, with a fighter-first promise and a commitment to the fans to restore boxing to the luster of its heyday. The continued success of this effort will far outlast this baseless lawsuit.”
With a stable that includes Floyd Mayweather Jr., unbeaten welterweights Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia, light-heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson, former middleweight champion Peter Quillin and former welterweight champion Shawn Porter, Al Haymon is regarded as one of the most powerful boxing managers around. In addition, Haymon’s roster of promoters include New York’s Lou DiBella and Sherman Oaks’ Goossen Promotions.
On the other side, Arum’s current stable of fighters includes Manny Pacquiao as well as featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and welterweight Timothy Bradley. All of these boxers fight on HBO.
“In order to stifle legitimate promoters from competing against PBC, Haymon has obtained exclusivity commitments from broadcasters,” the lawsuit claims. “Between these predatory ‘payola’ payments and the expenses of promoting each televised match, Haymon and Waddell & Reed are operating at a significant short-term loss in the millions of dollars.”
The short-term loss overall could go over $200 million for Haymon within PBC’s first 24 months of operation, according from speculation in the lawsuit.
“This ‘loss leader’ strategy … has allowed Haymon to gain unfair advantage in the promoter market to the severe detriment of legitimate competitors like Top Rank,” the Top Rank lawsuit stated as it pointed out attempts by Haymon to block venues from other promoters coupled with claims of the manager preventing PBC fighters from engaging in matches against Top Rank boxers.
Haymon’s venue-blocking actions, referenced by the fight between Lucas Matthysse and Ruslan Provodnikov being forced from the Southland to a New York casino, are evidence that Haymon has monopolistic goals in mind., the lawsuit claims.
“Using one’s power to box out competitors is a classic monopolistic tactic,” Petrocelli wrote in the lawsuit.
“Once Haymon obtains monopoly power in the market for promoting professional boxing matches, he will recoup the losses by charging exorbitant prices to broadcasters, sponsors, and consumers. Haymon and Waddell & Reed will be the sole competitor.”
Top Rank is seeking more than $100 million in damages and an injunction from the lawsuit to stop Haymon’s “predatory practices.”
For more on Top Rank’s lawsuit against Haymon and PBC, click here for MORE from the LA Times.
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