Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Al Haymon

Golden Boy Promotions’ $300 million lawsuit against Premier Boxing Champions creator Al Haymon was dismissed on Thursday by a federal judge. The federal judge that granted Haymon’s motion for summary judgment wrote an extensive ruling that was released by ESPN.

"The court concludes that plaintiffs have failed to demonstrate that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to any of their federal claims for relief," Walter wrote in the 24-page ruling.

Golden Boy Promotions filed the lawsuit in May of 2015, after a highly-publicized falling out between Haymon and Golden Boy. The suit alleged that Haymon and his several businesses "repeatedly violated antitrust laws and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act in an attempt to monopolize boxing."

According to Golden Boy, Haymon and the investment firm Waddel & Reed were conspiring to violate federal laws that were put in place to protect boxers. They alleged that Haymon and his associates bought network time on a variety of networks for their PBC cards as an effort to "block non-PBC promoters from having potential television outlets."

The judge rejected these allegations on Thursday, writing:

"Plaintiffs contend that Haymon Sports has used these provisions to force its boxers to work with ‘sham’ promoters and/or prevent its fighters from entering into contracts with Golden Boy and other ‘legitimate’ promoters. However, not a single boxer has testified that he has been coerced into selecting a particular promoter or prevented from selecting the promoter of his choice. In fact, defendants have submitted the declarations of six boxers who testify directly to the contrary."

Those six fighters that testified against the allegations made by Golden Boy were revealed to be Daniel Jacobs, John Molina, Oyewale Omotoso, Shawn Porter, Julian Williams and Leo Santa Cruz.

You can read ESPN’s full report of the ruling here.