Monday will be an interesting day in the Canelo Alvarez lawsuit against DAZN and Golden Boy. The court has set a deadline of October 26th as to filing the contracts that are the center of the dispute.
According to a minute order from the court, the parties were to “meet and confer” which basically means to talk to one another and negotiate a mutually agreeable way to address how to file the contracts. One would assume that Alvarez has the Golden Boy contract (since he had to have signed it) while the DAZN-Golden Boy contract will be lodged with the court. The assumption is that the parties will agree to seal the documents so the public will not be able to see the documents.
There is also a request as to whether any party will invoke the arbitration agreements which appear in the contracts. This would mean that the lawsuits would be halted and the issue would go to arbitration based upon the rules indicated in the contracts. But the question would be which arbitration provision? Canelo-Golden Boy or Golden Boy-DAZN. Since there is no contractual relationship between Canelo and DAZN, something that it will likely bring up as a defense, the only arbitration that would be likely would be Canelo’s Golden Boy contract.
But, with these competing arbitration provisions, you may assume that there’s a decision to be made. Golden Boy seems to be stuck in the middle as it is being sued by Canelo but would still like to be in the good graces of its boxer. Thus, it may invoke the arbitration provision with DAZN. There is also the issue that if DAZN invokes its arbitration provision with Golden Boy, Canelo’s legal claims would not be the subject of the dispute between the two. Then, there’s the claim by Canelo that it is seeking a declaratory judgment (court order) that it should be freed from its contractual obligations with Golden Boy. With this, Canelo would have to file a Temporary Restraining Order followed by a Preliminary Injunction. These vehicles would allow Canelo to be freed from his obligations with Golden Boy and seek to fight with another promoter.
Payout Perspective:
Don’t expect to see either of the contracts from Golden Boy or DAZN but it will be interesting to see whether either company invokes its contractual right to arbitrate the case. Canelo’s lawyers may seek to fight the arbitration provision but it would be unlikely that he would prevail. However, what may save Canelo from arbitration and enable him to litigate would be an injunction which he would have to file separate from the lawsuit. This would enable him to be free from the Golden Boy contract and at least allow him to fight with another promotion and without the albatross of a DAZN fight requirement. MPO will continue to follow.
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