An Orange County Superior Court denied Audie Attar’s request for an injunction to stop Manny Pacquiao from fighting Errol Spence, Jr. August 21st. Spence’s promoter, Tom Brown, intervened in the lawsuit on Pacquiao’s behalf citing that many third parties would be financially harmed if the fight would be stopped.
The Court sided with Brown’s argument and perhaps even more important, the Court noted that in Paradigm’s contract there was an “adequate legal remedy” based on Paradigm’s supplemental agreement with Pacquiao. Section 21 of the Agreement noted that Pacquiao would pay Paradigm in the event of a material breach of the contact. This remedy would suffice and it is less obtrusive than to stop Pacquiao’s fight with Spence.
It should be noted that Brown argues that Pacquiao had a contract with TGB Promotions preceding the Paradigm contract. TGB argues that it had a preexisting arrangement with Pacquiao. It provided evidence of Agreements with Pacquiao which showed priority over Paradigm’s deal.
The Court also stated that in weighing the balance of harms involved if it were to grant an injunction, it would harm TGB and Pacquiao.
Pacquiao is set to take on Spence in Las Vegas on Saturday, August 21. However, according to Paradigm, a deal was set in place where he would fight Mikey Garcia in Saudi Arabia. But, Pacquiao announced the Spence fight as part of a deal with TGB.
Payout Perspective:
Although the preliminary injunction was not granted, it does not mean that Attar lost the case. An injunction is a ‘last resort’ in some respects as the threshold to prove to a court is very high. In most cases, if contracts have clauses which allows for a non-breaching party to be made whole through monetary compensation, it is done over stopping an event from occurring. MPO will continue to follow.
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