By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Judge Loretta A. Preska of the US District Court, Southern District of New York in granting Murad Muhammad and M&M Sports a preliminary injunction Thursday pointed out that in the event of the “threatened breach” of his agreement with Murad Muhammad by Manny Pacquiao the “promoter would suffer irreparable damages which could not be reasonably or adequately compensated by an action at law.”
In a complete transcript of the proceedings obtained by Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, Judge Preska also said that “two irreparable injuries seem likely to occur if Mr. Pacquiao is permitted to follow through on his announced course” to fire Murad and not to honor his live contract. The judge said that young and upcoming fighters who might be contemplating signing up with Murad “will decline to do so; that is injuring Muhammad and M&M’s ability to build marketable fighters and to place young fighters on the undercards of his and their events” and that “Pacquiao’s defection will deprive M&M first of the fruits of its labors in building up Pacquiao’s career."
She noted that from a fighter whose first fight resulted in a purse of $10,000 in 2001 Pacquiao was built into a fighter whose purse in March of 2005 was $1.750,000.” The judge also said “it will deprive M&M of its ability to attract other fighters who can be or are in the same league of Pacquiao.” She also said lawyer Keith Davidson’s claim that the “loss of a fighter or two will have no effect” on M&M since he claimed Murad was comparable to a Don King was “not appropriate” since the two were “not comparable” because Pacquiao was “far and away the best fighter, the most publicized fighter” under contract with M&M and Don King had scores of elite fighters under promotional contract and thus “the comparison is simply not apt.”
Noting that other fighters under contract with M&M “will be encouraged to depart once they have reached a greater degree of fame than they had when they started with M&M and fighters who are considering signing with M&M will not do so” Judge Preska ruled that she found “the reputational injury that M&M will suffer in the absence of a preliminary injunction is irreparable, serious and highly likely to occur.”
In a significant statement the judge added “M&M’s likelihood of success on the merits of its contract claim is virtually guaranteed, particularly in the light of the contract language.” Judge Preska also noted that with regard to the breach allegations by Pacquiao and the arguments about unclean hands the affidavits point to business manager Rod Nazario and his son Roberto Nazario as “the bad actors here” and although Pacquiao chose not to name them as defendants because doing so “would raise significant issues of personal and subject matter jurisdiction” it was no reason to “justify a breach of contract that admits that this particular breach would constitute irreparable injury.”
Judge Preska in part of her concluding remarks noted that based on Pacquiao’s declaration itself “it is the Nazarios who are the bad actors here, not M&M.” She also said “M&M does not suffer from unclean hands sufficient to deny relief which it has demonstrated it is entitled to.” Judge Preska said she intended to “hold the trial on the merits very promptly and to require expedited discovery between now and then.”
Pacquiao was represented by Judd Burstein while M&M Sports and Murad Muhammad were represented by Julian W. Friedman.
