A new lawsuit has arisen with Heredia Boxing Management and its owner filing a lawsuit against MTK Global Sports Management, LLC, Golden Boy Promotions, Inc., VGC, LLP, Paul Gibson and Daniel Kinahan. The Complaint filed in Los Angeles Federal Court claims that MTK Global paid boxer JoJo Diaz $100K for the fighter to leave his manager and promoter.
The lawsuit claims violations of the Ali Act and civil RICO charges against MTK Global. They claim Golden Boy Promotions interfered with a contractual relationship with another boxer as well.
The lawsuit highlights the belief that MTK Global willfully induced Diaz into an advisory role. Diaz signed in August 2020. Heredia has claimed that Diaz has stopped communicating with them causing them business and damage to its “prospective commercial relations.” A portion of Heredia’s lawsuit reads, “Mexican American boxers also have the highest draw in the boxing sport. Loss of world champion [sic] affects their standing in the boxing management community and amongst boxing promotors.”
Heredia claims that MTK hired New York-based law firm VGC, LLP to file a lawsuit on Diaz’s behalf against the Plaintiff to find the boxer-manager contract unenforceable and to file a demand letter to Golden Boy seeking them to nullify their promotional agreement.
Kinihan is claimed to have turned his money obtained via illegal measures into a boxing management company and is seeking inroads into the US. Notably, Tyson Fury sang his praises this past summer. He is known for a shootout that occurred at a weigh-in in February 2016 where one person was killed.
The boxing-manager contract that Heredia refers to is one that was signed by Diaz in 2017 and lasts for 5 years.
Heredia also sues Diaz’s promoter Golden Boy citing interference with their contract of Luis Feliciano. Heredia claims that a Golden Boy employee has attempted to contact their fighter on multiple occasions.
Payout Perspective:
The lawsuit does not specify the violations of the Ali Act. It does boil down to allegations of interfering with an existing business relationship. The bulk of the lawsuit deals with 31-1, IBF World Super Featherweight titleholder JoJo Diaz. Heredia is his manager but he claims that MTK Global is trying to create a wedge between them presumably so that Diaz will leave Heredia for MTK. While Diaz signed with MTK Global in an advisory role, it would seem that this effectively ends the relationship with Heredia. The allegations of civil RICO violations stem from MTK Global’s alleged organized crime ties so its unknown whether those claims will stand. The interesting part of this lawsuit may come from the alleged claims that Diaz was induced to leave Heredia. One would suspect that Diaz would be susceptible to a breach of contract claim here although Heredia wouldn’t sue someone that he wants to retain. One might assume that MTK and its law firm will respond with counterclaims by Heredia. As the plaintiffs cites in the lawsuit there were claims that there was social media campaign citing a “toxic” relationship between Diaz and Heredia which would precipitate a severing of the relationship. MPO will continue to follow.
[…] lawsuit dealt with claims that MTK had taken away Heredia’s client, boxer Joseph “JoJo” […]