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http://e s p n .go.com/boxing/story/_/id/12835912/golden-boy-promotions-sues-al-haymon-300-million reads:
"Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions announced Wednesday that it has filed a federal lawsuit seeking $300 million against Al Haymon and his various business en******, among others, alleging that they have repeatedly violated antitrust laws and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act -- the latest battle between De La Hoya and Haymon.
Golden Boy, which filed the lawsuit Tuesday in California federal court in Los Angeles, also sued Waddell & Reed Financial, Inc., and its related hedge funds, which are primary source of some $425 million Haymon is using to finance his "Premier Boxing Champions" series."
... Al Haymon should be comfortable as long as he, himself, would settle all these through an 'arbitror'... while his business en****** and his business partners won't...
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al hymie scrambles for a buck it's why he gets up in the morningComment
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The first thing that came to mind Wednesday upon receiving a news release from Golden Boy Promotions that it had sued Al Haymon for violations of the Muhammad Ali Act and for employing anti-competitive business practices was that Golden Boy had done exactly the same thing for years.
Haymon for years supplied his fighters primarily to Golden Boy. Golden Boy had a stranglehold on dates on Showtime the past few years. The company had an exclusive deal with the Barclays Center in New York, shutting out all other promoters.
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.Oscar De La Hoya founded Golden Boy Promotions and Bernard Hopkins is a co-owner. (AP)
Oscar De La Hoya founded Golden Boy Promotions and Bernard Hopkins is a co-owner. (AP)
A large reason for the so-called "Cold War" between Golden Boy and Top Rank was because Golden Boy was using primarily Haymon fighters and declined to match them with Top Rank fighters.
But when relations between former Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer and company founder Oscar De La Hoya became tense and Schaefer eventually resigned, things somehow changed.
Bert Fields, Golden Boy's powerful Los Angeles-based attorney, had a simple explanation.
"There is a two-word answer to that," Fields said regarding a series of concerns Yahoo Sports expressed about the suit. "The two words are 'Richard Schaefer.' Richard Schaefer was running Golden Boy. He was close to Al Haymon and he is with Al Haymon now.
"Whatever happened in those days is attributable to Schaefer. Oscar has taken over the company himself. He has a good staff. [Matchmaker] Eric Gomez and others. We're going in a different direction. That direction has caused us to investigate the facts and this [lawsuit] is the result."
Schaefer declined to comment and Haymon doesn't speak to the media.
Golden Boy is seeking $300 million in damages against Haymon, his companies and investors, as a result of what it alleges are violations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, the Ali Act and other laws, both state and federal. The Ali Act was enacted to protect the rights and welfare of boxers and increase integrity in boxing.
Fields alleges that Haymon is serving as both promoter and manager and is systematically eliminating competition.
Though Haymon was never seen publicly during last week's Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao bout that has generated at least $400 million in revenue, Fields said that Haymon clearly was the promoter of the show.
The promoter of record was Mayweather Promotions and its CEO, Leonard Ellerbe, but Fields said there is no question that it was Haymon calling the shots.
"Al Haymon, in my view, is the promoter of the fight you just saw, along with Top Rank," Fields said. "***8230; So far, as far as I know, Haymon isn't allowing fighters of other promoters to be on his television shows. In the Pacquiao fight, you had Top Rank on one side and on the other, you had Al Haymon. When I say Al Haymon, I mean his companies. You had Mayweather Promotions, theoretically, with [consultant] Bruce Binkow and people like that, but basically the guy who was calling the shots was Al Haymon."
In the press release announcing the suit, Golden Boy wrote, "Haymon is not only pushing out other legitimate promoters in favor of ineffective puppets that he controls, but locking out top fighters who dare not to join his stable of fighters."
One of the major components of the lawsuit is Haymon's Premier Boxing Champions and its varied television deals. Haymon has raised more than $400 million from investors and has bought time on NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN and Spike, as well as other networks.
That is making it difficult for other promoters to compete, Fields said.
"He has every network except Fox, and he'll get Fox pretty soon," Fields said of Haymon and the PBC. "To put on these shows, unquestionably he's the promoter. He's bought the air time. It's costing many, many millions and he's putting on the show. No one could say he's not the promoter."
Golden Boy's lawsuit blasted the promoters that have been promoting shows for Haymon's PBC such as DiBella Entertainment, Goossen Promotions and Warriors Boxing.
Lou DiBella, however, insists he's not a puppet and that he, not Haymon, promoted the April 11 show at the Barclays Center. DiBella, a former HBO Sports executive, unsolicited called Yahoo Sports Wednesday to rail against Golden Boy's lawsuit.
He worked closely with U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to write the language in the Ali Act and said it's obvious that Golden Boy doesn't understand it.
He pointed out that he was born in Brooklyn, where the Barclays Center is located, but couldn't promote there for years because of the exclusive deal Golden Boy had with it.
But the April 11 PBC show at Barclays that DiBella promoted ***8211; which featured Peter Quillin vs. Andy Lee and Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson ***8211; drew an arena boxing-gate record of $1,056,121. He said when he got the chance to promote there, he proved he could do better than Golden Boy.
He went after Golden Boy, particularly De La Hoya, and said the company doesn't understand the Ali Act.
"I think they are a troupe of hypocrites, not very bright and have a complete misunderstanding of what the Ali Act is," DiBella said. "I'm going to respond in two ways. One way is a kid from Brooklyn who worked hard to be where I am. The other is as a Harvard-educated lawyer who knows more about the Ali Act than anyone who worked on their lawsuit or wrote this press release [announcing it].
"So first of all, I guess [they're saying] I'm one of the puppets controlled by Haymon. Well, screw them, because I'm not controlled by anybody. I just promoted a show that sold more tickets than any show Golden Boy ever promoted at the Barclays Center, grossed more money than any show Golden Boy ever promoted at the Barclays Center and was a bigger success than any show Golden Boy did in three years at the Barclays Center."
Brett Yormark, CEO of the Barclays Center, stood up strongly for DiBella and said DiBella was clearly in charge and promoting the show, not Haymon. Yormark said he ended the relationship with Golden Boy after being unhappy with the way it was promoting shows at Barclays.
"Candidly, there are a lot of reasons I walked away from the relationship [with Golden Boy]," Yormark said. "The biggest, however, is the fact that over the course of the last year, they weren't doing a very good job with us as far as promoting, selling tickets, getting on the ground and, for that matter, putting on good fights. I felt that for the benefit of our building, I needed to go out there and become a little bit more of an open room.
" ***8230; We had very modest success from a ticket-selling perspective on our last Golden Boy show [in August], and then Lou and I started to engage. Lou has a great team. They're local. I do calls once a week with Lou and his entire marketing staff. ... He is an incredible promoter who is very much all in. Candidly, with his expertise knowing the market as well as he does, and the bandwidth and reach of Barclays Center, the fight on the 11th was the best fight we've had since we've opened."
DiBella said that for years De La Hoya benefited from the type of business practices he's now complaining about.
DiBella pointed out that his business took a hit earlier in this century when Golden Boy got an output deal with HBO Sport in which it was guaranteed a number of shows on the network even before fights were made.
Television dates are critical to the survival of boxing promoters, and Golden Boy has made exclusive or near-exclusive deals for years with both HBO and Showtime that shut out other promoters, DiBella said.
"I don't need to be insulted by a guy who has lived within the thinnest of glass houses his entire career as a promoter," DiBella said. "I find it fascinating that he and [Golden Boy co-owner] Bernard [Hopkins], when they damaged my business and a lot of other promoters' businesses through an output deal with HBO that closed the door and limited the budget incredibly for everybody else in the business.
"You didn't hear a peep from them then about anti-trust or restraint of trade. Their hypocrisy is mind-blowing."
Haymon operates behind the scenes without much scrutiny, and so it wouldn't be a shock if some violations were to be discovered.
But the suit does come across as sour g****s, with De La Hoya raving to Yahoo Sports several weeks ago about HBO's ability to build pay-per-view stars.
"There's no one better" than HBO Sports, he said. Every star of the pay-per-view era, including himself, Mike Tyson and Mayweather, were built on HBO, he said.
HBO recently had its highest rating in years when it did more than 1.6 million viewers for the Wladimir Klitschko-Bryant Jennings heavyweight title fight April 25.
De La Hoya has gotten a license fee in the multiple millions of dollars for Saturday's HBO bout between Canelo Alvarez and James Kirkland.
Fields told Yahoo Sports that Haymon is overpaying his fighters now in a bid to drive others out of the sport.
But many of the sport's biggest attractions, including Klitschko, Alvarez, Miguel Cotto, Pacquiao and Gennady Golovkin, aren't with Haymon.
Boxing is for some reason a litigious business, and has been for years. But it's unlikely that an anti-trust suit is going to save Golden Boy.
Signing good fighters, making good deals and getting out and promoting quality matches are the keys to making that happen.
Yahoo Sports:Comment
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The Natural Water of Things
Haymon is disturbing the natural waters of boxing so to speak and it's not appreciated. It's also partially why Mayweather is so disliked.Comment
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Wrong. You sign with a manager to offer opportunities, negotiate on your behalf, and advise on issues. The fighter should always have the final say.
On what planet does it make sense to pay someone 15% or 20% of your income for them to NOT allow you to do something? lolComment
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It's interesting for Dibella to be calling people hypocrites, especially when it comes to GBP and HBO, given that his promotional career was built on his relationship with HBO.
DiBella Easily Lands His Jab Against Arum
January 27, 2001|STEVE SPRINGER
He is Lou DiBella, who spent 11 years at HBO building that cable network into the most powerful television force in boxing.
Then, last May, he left and formed DiBella Entertainment, announcing that he was redefining the traditional relationships between fighters and handlers. He would be neither a promoter nor a manager, DiBella said, but a "matchmaker-television packager-marketing advisor,." who would focus on the financial well-being of his fighters.DiBella still has a relationship with the cable network. HBO has been supplying some of the money to sign DiBella's fighters--for as much as $1.5-$1.6 million--for the right to televise some of their fights.Last edited by Mitchell Kane; 07-09-2015, 01:59 PM.Comment
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Perhaps Lou forgot who put that Barclays deal together...
The Brooklyn deal is loosely modeled after what Golden Boy has done in Los Angeles at three facilities owned and operated by AEG, the largest shareholder in Golden Boy outside of principal owner Oscar De La Hoya.
We went to Richard [Schaefer, Golden Boy CEO], through some mutual friends of mine, about three years ago about getting some shows, Yormark said. We had a strong desire to bring back boxing to Brooklyn.;Boxing was something we certainly wanted to be a part of it when we opened up Barclays Center. After a quick meeting with Richard, we realized we wanted to be partners. It's something we've obviously spoke about for the better part of three years, and Saturday marks the first of what we think will be many great moments when it comes to boxing in Brooklyn.
Later, Schaefer brokered sponsorship agreements, tied Golden Boy to buildings like the Barclays Center, and convinced Fox Sports 1 to give him a boxing series that would enable the company to showcase its young fighters regularly.
Golden Boy goes to venues, DiBella says. ;They go to fighters, sponsors, and investors, saying, HBO is our strategic partner. They give the impression that it will go on long after 2011 and that the deal will give Barclays exposure on HBO. And HBO does nothing to rebut that. This is a contract between a hole in the ground and a promoter for unnamed fighters in fights that won't be made for years. The whole thing smells.As for the allegations that something improper transpired, Schaefer declares, I would say to the other promoters, Stop crying. Stop complaining. Get up, go out, and do something. No one said that Lou DiBella couldn't approach Barclays. I did, and he didn't. I've approached many people where nothing worked out. I didn't complain and stop trying. Lou DiBella complains that I came into Brooklyn. Fine. Let Lou DiBella come out to Los Angeles and make a deal with Forum Boxing. And don't stop with Los Angeles. Does Lou think that we're going to stop in New York? I'm looking now at monthly shows in England and to use our relationship with AEG [an equity partner in Golden Boy] to set up a presence in China. The New Jersey Nets [of the National Basketball Association] will play at the Barclays Center. The new owner of the Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov is one of the richest men in Russia. Don't you think that I will have conversations with him about a Golden Boy presence in Russia. Lou DiBella should go to England; Lou DiBella should go to Russia and other countries around the world and promote the way that Golden Boy is doing.***8221;
Yormark contends that DiBella never believed the Barclays Center project, which has endured countless delays over the last few years, would ever get completed and was therefore not proactive in getting involved.
"Lou is irate because he is waiting for a phone call he never got," Yormark said. "He's a naysayer who never thought the Barclays Center would ever happen. Right or wrong, he stood on principle waiting for a phone call. Golden Boy saw the opportunity and seized it."
Said Schaefer: "Sometimes people cry too much about something. Grow up. If I would have been from Brooklyn and knew there was going to be an arena, I would have gone and met with them. It takes hard work. I work 24/7."
Several industry sources have questioned the role of HBO, which has a close relationship with Golden Boy. Some sources have suggested that HBO was involved with brokering the deal with the Barclays Center.
Both HBO and Yormark emphatically deny the network's involvement.
"Absolutely not," Yormark said. "I have some friends at HBO that date back a long way. But they never brokered [a deal] or interfered in it."
An HBO spokesman told SI.com that "in no way did anyone at HBO Sports suggest or recommend to Mr. Yormark what promotional company he should contact, nor did Mr. Yormark indicate that he intended to approach any promoter as a potential exclusive partner or sponsor. Yes, one of our executives had lunch with Mr. Yormark once in the past year, but the conversation was general and no recommendations or endorsements were made."
In a deal recently completed, De La Hoya bought back Anschutz Entertainment Group's approximate 20 percent stake in the Los Angeles-based company and the approximate 12 percent of the company held by Gabriel Brener, a private investor and chairman and CEO of Brener International Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.AEG's involvement in Golden Boy was largely due to the close relationship between Beckerman, a boxing fan, and former Golden Boy chief executive Richard Schaefer, who resigned on June 2 after a falling out with De La Hoya. They are embroiled in a $50 million arbitration case De La Hoya brought against Schaefer, accusing him of, among other things, breach of fiduciary duty to the company.Comment
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It will be interesting to see if the courts agree with him.
When it came time to negotiate Mayweather-Pacquiao, it was Moonves meeting with Arum and Haymon, not Ellerbe...
For most of the negotiation, Moonves dealt with Arum and Haymon individually, taking messages back and forth between them. In addition to having patched up his friendship with Arum, Moonves also has an excellent relationship with Haymon, with whom Showtime has been doing most of its fights.They had gotten close on the major points but Arum and Haymon were eventually going to have to meet in person to really get it done. Moonves arranged it and for the first time in several years Arum and Haymon were face to face at a December meeting at Moonves' home. Haymon does not speak to the media. Arum described the meeting as cordial and productive.
"We shook hands. We were very professional," Arum said. "We went through everything, point by point, and we realized there wasn't any kind of big gap there on these points as far as how the promotion would run and the drug testing. Pretty much everything fell into place. Al had to talk to his fighter and I had to talk to Pacquiao, but when I left Les' house I assumed there was a deal.
"I never talked to Haymon after that meeting in Les' house. That meeting was strictly business, but there wasn't a shred of animosity."Last edited by Mitchell Kane; 07-09-2015, 02:19 PM.Comment
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