One of the biggest stories in the boxing industry is the ongoing legal battle involving Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
Last week, Canelo filed a $280 million breach of contract lawsuit against his promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, Golden Boy's CEO Oscar De La Hoya, and streaming service DAZN.
The lawsuit is currently stalled due to a technicality in the complaint filed by Canelo's legal team.
Top Rank President Todd DuBoef is very familiar with big name fighters breaking away from his company. And some of those fighters filed lawsuits to pursue the desire to go in a new direction.
De La Hoya, who promotes Canelo, was among those fighters and legally battled Top Rank to break away and form his own company.
Having said that, the Canelo vs. Golden Boy/DAZN scenario is not exactly a shocker for DuBoef.
"It's not the first time a network, a promoter and a fighter have been at odds. Canelo is obviously one of the biggest attractions in the world and a terrific fighter. The marriage between the smart thinking of DAZN, to get someone who can draw that much attention in the US, was terrific for them. But the economics was a different story," DuBoef said to Sky Sports.
"We want to see Canelo back in the ring because his window of opportunity as an athlete gets smaller and smaller. He elevates the sport for all of us. He's locked up in a relationship and they need to play that out. Hopefully they will work it out civilly and he gets back in the ring.
"When you have a long run with a fighter, a good partnership that starts at the beginning? We plant the seed, water it, and the stalk grows. Those relationships are the hardest ones because there is a history and a sense of collaborative ownership of the overall product. It does, unfortunately at times, impasse. It doesn't matter who the fighter is. At some point you sit across the table and say: 'How are we going to figure this out?' That's what they need to figure out.
"Sit down, dig deep, look back at each other and the relationship and say: 'How do we make it good?' The difficult ones are when you have a deep history in fostering the product of a fighter becoming a superstar. When there is a sideways move, how do you bring everyone back to the table?"