Boxing promoter Dan Goossen has filed a lawsuit against boxer Andre Ward and his attorneys as a result of Ward’s lawsuit claiming that the promoter violated the Ali Act when promoting the super middleweight.
The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court accuses Ward, his attorney James McCarroll and McCarroll’s law firm Reed Smith of “character assassination.” Ward had filed a lawsuit claiming that Dan Goossen of not providing financial disclosure information pursuant to the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. Prior to that, the two sides battled over the length of Ward’s promotional contract with Goossen. In that round this past spring, in an arbitration hearing, the California State Athletic Commission ruled in favor of Goossen,
Goossen now is claiming $10 million dollars in damages plus attorney fees as a result of what the promoter claims is a “vicious campaign to smear” him. The lawsuit appears to be due in part to public comments made by Andre Ward to BoxingScene.com that Goossen violated the Ali Act and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office launch a criminal investigation.
(H/t: Boxing Scene)
Payout Perspective:
Boxing lawsuits never disappoint. From Goossen’s perspective, the inference that he is doing something criminal without factual evidence (not yet presented) feasibly hurts his business and you may see why he is filing the lawsuit. But can he prove a claim of defamation? The key issue in a defamation claim is that the individual making the defamatory statement must know that the statement is false. This may be a tough hurdle to surpass but we recently saw this occur with the Jesse Ventura defamation lawsuit.
Obviously, a lawyer accusing another lawyer of misrepresenting the truth is (believe it or not) frowned upon and is the proverbial “white glove slap across the face.” Look for this lawsuit, and the Andre Ward lawsuit, to heat up in the future. MMA Payout will keep you posted.
Haha. Ward better not lose this suit or he is going to be fighting till he in his 50s. He can’t make what the top fighters in mma make because he can’t sell a ppv. HAHAHAHA!!!
It really isn’t fair to compare this to the Ventura case though because Ward didn’t make up some sort of elaborate story like Kyle did about Ventura and publish it in a book where he made millions in royalties defaming Goosen. His complaint was about disclosure of pay and although Goosen’s counter suit is based on defamation based on Ward’s claims, Andre’s focus was not to attack Goosen’s character, only address the lack of transparency about pay, ie financially based, whereas Kyle was just because he didn’t like Ventura on a personal level.
Mma fighters are paid peanuts….hahahaha
The best boxer in the world, Andre Ward can’t sell a ppv and has to sue his promoter to pay off his debts. They make peanuts!! HAHAHA!!!
from what ive read on boxing sites, it looks like ward may lose this case
Good thing this site features kickboxing and.boxing because nothings happening in the UFC…hahahahaha…
Yeah, because frivolous lawsuits that get thrown out of court by active boxers who are broke, are truly headline capturing. HAHAHAHAHA!!!
http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/11387735/judge-dismisses-andre-ward-latest-attempt-break-contract-promoter-dan-goossen
I don’t pretend to tell Ward how to manage his career, but at some point he just has to get his ass back in the ring. Whatever he thinks he can make without Goossen, right now he’s making $0. If he had fought out his contract he would probably be free today and have a few more paychecks in his bank account. Sometimes the best way to get out of a contract is to honor it.
It’s just frustrating that the best fighter in the division is doing color commentary.