It’s time to take a look back at the lawsuit involving Floyd Mayweather’s Promotional Company and a company headed by Logan Paul. The litigation stems from the fight between Paul and Mayweather which took place last June in Miami.
The current Motion that has not been decided is a Motion to Dismiss the Counterclaims of Logan Paul against Mayweather Promotions. Paul is opposing the motion.
Mayweather Promotions and PAC entered into an Agreement on March 21st by which PAC guaranteed to pay Mayweather $115 million on a specified schedule. They also indicated that they had Promotional inroads for a location of the fight in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai to be exact) where a big-time site fee was awaiting. However, PAC failed to meet the scheduled payments and the UAE location never materialized. According to Mayweather, the failure to make timely and complete payments constituted a material breach and triggered the entire amount due and payable immediately. Another Agreement entered into on March 31st was attempted to cure the previous Agreement. According to Mayweather, if non-payment occurred a second time, it would eliminate PAC’s right to hold the event and its right to distribute the event. Payment was due on April 1, 2021. PAC did not make payment until April 6, 2021.
Mayweather filed as a result of this alleged breach.
PAC responded by filing its own counterclaims to Mayweather including anticipatory breach, wrongful termination, breach of implied covenant and fraud. Mayweather claims that PAC’s reason for not fulfilling the payment schedule was due to a text from Mayweather stating, “I’m done,” one day before PAC was required to wire Mayweather Promotions another $10 million.
PAC argues that Mayweather was shopping around the location of the site of the fight prior to the payments coming due per the schedules agreed to by the parties. Essentially, Mayweather was hedging his bets and negotiating with other parties for the location despite the fact he agreed with the PAC that in exchange for the lump sum payments, the fight would be in Dubai.
PAC asserts that Mayweather’s text confirmed that he was moving on from the deal he had with Paul.
The Motion to Dismiss was filed by Mayweather Promotions back in September with the Opposition being sent to the Court in late October and the final brief lodged with the Court this past November. At this point, the Court had yet to rule on the Motion. And, it may be that they will not.
According to Court records, a Mediator will be assigned by April in an attempt to settle the case short of trial. If not, the Court will likely rule on the Motion with discovery ongoing until June when a pretrial conference will be held to determine a date for trial.
Payout Perspective:
Despite the fact this lawsuit was filed before the Paul-Mayweather fight, the parties had the exhibition in June in Miami and it drew over 1 million PPV buys. So, the question is why is this case still here? First, the case is still about a breach of contract over money allegedly paid to Mayweather Promotions. The first Agreement signed on March 21 addressed event location and distribution rights in addition to payment of $110 million to Mayweather. When the first Agreement was breached, another Agreement was entered into on March 31st which addressed the possibility of another non-payment would mean Mayweather could retain payments already made and any rights under Agreement would terminate including the right to host the live event and distribution. So, Paul might be upset by the fact he paid Mayweather millions to host the fight but Mayweather Promotions claims that he can keep the money and the Agreement is void. Next, its likely there are additional agreements on how to split the rights fees for the PPV telecast as well as the attendance figures. If Mayweather claims that he now dictates the rights fees, Paul would feel slighted. Finally, the case presents another angle between Jake Paul and Floyd Mayweather. During the lead-up to the Logan Paul fight in Miami, you may recall the dustup between Paul and Floyd in which Jake took Mayweather’s hat. This lawsuit can keep this rivalry alive for a fight down the road.
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