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Top Rank has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Al Haymon for among other things breaching the Muhammad Ali act, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

“With the financial backing, complicity, and material assistance of Waddell & Reed and other financiers, Haymon is rigging the boxing industry so they can act as manager, promoter, sponsor, and ticket broker for nearly every major professional boxer competing in the United States, all in violation of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, the Sherman (antitrust) Act, and a host of other state and federal laws,” the suit said. “Openly defying the statutorily-mandated ‘firewall’ between manager and promoter — two distinct professional roles that, as described at length below, serve fundamentally different purposes in the boxing industry — Haymon has leveraged his dominance in the boxing management business to injure and exclude competitors in the business of promoting professional boxing matches in the United States.”

“Al Haymon and Waddell & Reed are engaged in a sophisticated scheme to gain control of the boxing industry,” Top Rank attorney Daniel Petrocelli of O’Melveny & Myers said. “As the lawsuit explains in detail, they are violating federal law, defying state regulators and absorbing significant short-term losses to drive legitimate operators out of the business.”

“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.”

“In at least some instances, Haymon falsely and fraudulently conceals his role in promoting his clients’ bouts by employing ‘sham’ promoters or ‘frontmen’ — nominal promoters who are in fact controlled or dominated by Haymon,” the suit said, adding that “for a fee” they “rent their promoters’ licenses to Haymon and Waddell & Reed, and function in a perfunctory role under the instruction of Haymon. Ultimately, however, the money passes through Haymon’s accounts, and Haymon makes all material decisions.”

“Paying the purse is a classic promoter responsibility, not the job of a true manager,” the suit said. “Tellingly, Chavez Jr.’s Instagram post was removed minutes after it appeared.

“While Haymon’s sham promoters may formally execute contracts with venues, sponsors, broadcasters, and other stakeholders, and may submit those contracts to state athletic commissions, they do not control the negotiations. Rather, Haymon directs everything himself … The façade of Haymon’s frontmen is underscored by the fact that, more often than not, they do not have promotion contracts with the boxers themselves, as a legitimate promoter normally would.”

“Haymon is essentially sitting on both sides of the bargaining table,” the suit said. “While purporting to act in his clients’ best interests, Haymon has obtained direct and indirect financial interests in promoting his boxers — thereby creating the very conflict of interest the Ali Act sought to remedy.”

“In order to stifle legitimate promoters from competing against PBC, Haymon has obtained exclusivity commitments from broadcasters,” the suit said. “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. This ‘loss leader’ strategy — which Waddell & Reed has bankrolled and actively participated in — has allowed Haymon to gain unfair advantage in the promoter market to the severe detriment of legitimate competitors like Top Rank.

“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.”

“Haymon reserved prime locations such as Staples Center and The Forum so that they could not be booked by the competition, and then canceled after the competitors were forced to seek other locations,” the suit said. “The tactic unfairly injured his competitors and deprived consumers of access to events with no legitimate business purpose other than to unfairly harm competition.”

“Haymon is exploiting his dominance in the management market to harm and exclude legitimate promoters from the promotion market,” the suit said. “If this conduct continues unabated, and Haymon becomes the de facto sole promoter of Championship-Caliber Boxers, it will become increasingly difficult for any remaining non-Haymon boxers to gain exposure and quality opponents. In order to salvage their careers, non-Haymon boxers will have no choice but to sign up with Haymon — on both the management and promotion sides. As Haymon’s power and influence in both markets grow, he will be able to exert even more control over the entire boxing industry.”

“For decades, the boxing business earned a poor reputation because of some unsavory characters,” Petrocelli said. “Congress stepped in and enacted laws to clean up the industry. Top Rank is trying to ensure that Al Haymon and Waddell play by the same rules as everyone else.”

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