LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather is being sued by an event production company over alleged breaches of contract tied to planned bouts against Manny Pacquiao and Mike Tyson.
The suit was filed by CSI Sports Events on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging Mayweather was given a total of $4.65 million in advances on his fight purses in exchange for CSI obtaining exclusive broadcasting rights to the two fights.
The Tyson bout would have been an exhibition and the Pacquiao fight was to be a sanctioned rematch that would have seen the 50-0 fighter come out of retirement.
Part of Mayweather’s contract with CSI prohibited him from taking another fight before the Tyson bout. According to the lawsuit, he violated that provision when he announced a fight against Greek kickboxer Michael Zambidis scheduled for June 27 in Athens, Greece.
The announcement came the day after Mayweather, via an associate, was given $150,000 in cash by CSI, according to the lawsuit.
CSI’s suit is seeking a minimum of $4.65 million from Mayweather and co-defendant Frist Apex, who acted as Mayweather’s representative during the dealings with CSI, according to the production company’s lawyer, Judd Burstein. CSI is also seeking an injunction to halt next week’s planned Mayweather-Zambidis exhibition.
Mayweather was to officially come out of retirement following the Tyson exhibition, to fight Pacquiao in his first sanctioned bout since beating UFC star Conor McGregor nine years ago, as part of the CSI deal.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch was initially announced for Sept. 19 as the first boxing match to be held at Sphere. After the official announcement, Mayweather created confusion when in March he stated that the fight’s location was not set and that it was going to be an exhibition, not a sanctioned bout. Then in May, Mayweather claimed at a news conference for his June 27 exhibition against a Greek kickboxer that the two sides were working on a deal for the Pacquiao bout, with details to be announced later An official announcement never occurred.
The Mayweather-Tyson exhibition did not have an official date announced, but initial reports noted it was expected to take place this spring before Mayweather-Pacquiao 2, per the contract with CSI. Tyson broke his hand during training for the exhibition, so the event was postponed.
“The Tyson and Pacquiao Fights are unique, once-in-a-lifetime events, and a loss of the opportunity to be associated with these historic fights cannot adequately be compensated by money damages,” the lawsuit reads. “The resulting publicity and reputations benefit to Plaintiffs cannot be underestimated.”
Mayweather was set to earn at least $64 million under the agreements, according to the lawsuit.
Mayweather was contracted to receive $35 million and 20% of the pay-per-view proceeds for the Pacquiao rematch, if the bout was aired on PPV. If the fight was aired on a non-PPV platform, Mayweather was set to receive $50 million, according to the lawsuit. Mayweather was planning to make $14 million for the Tyson fight, according to the suit.
After the initial contract was signed with CSI, Mayweather entered into a separate deal with EverWonder, for the Pacquiao bout which was to be held at Sphere. Despite the conflict with CSI’s contract, CSI and EverWonder began to work on a deal that would give CSI the exclusive billing rights for the bout that was to be streamed live on Netflix.
As part of that deal with EverWonder, Frist Apex was supposed to repay a $2 million advance paid by CSI to Mayweather, according to Burstein. Frist Apex failed to make the $2 million payment, leading to CSI including them in the lawsuit, Burstein said.
There are no scheduled court dates set for the case.
The multimillion-dollar lawsuit comes as Mayweather is facing a $7 million federal tax lien and being charged with writing a bad check worth $200,000 for a high-end watch at a Las Vegas business.
