Arum sues Mayweather adviser Haymon, claiming he’s taking over industry

NEW YORK: Two of boxing’s biggest heavyweights might square off against each other with more than any world title or prize money at stake. Less than two months after working together to stage the most lucrative bout in the sport’s history, longtime promoter Bob Arum could be soon sitting across the courtroom from Al Haymon, boxing’s powerful man of mystery.
Arum’s Top Rank Inc. filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Haymon in US District Court of Los Angeles on Wednesday morning, also naming as a defendant the investment firm Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., which reportedly has backed Haymon to the tune of $425 million. Arum is seeking more than $100 million in damages and is asking the court for an injunction to halt Haymon’s mounting takeover of boxing.
Haymon is the longtime adviser to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the brains behind Premier Boxing Champions, a series that launched this spring and managed to put the so-called sweet science on broadcast television across the country nearly every week. Haymon has struck deals with NBC, CBS and Spike TV for time-buys and is set to debut on ESPN and Fox Sports 1 this month.
Boxing observers have noted that Haymon appears to be attempting to consolidate the entire sport under a single banner — his own.
“Al Haymon and Waddell & Reed are engaged in a sophisticated scheme to gain control of the boxing industry,” Daniel Petrocelli, lead attorney for Top Rank, said in a news release. “As the lawsuit explains in detail, they are violating federal law, defying state regulators and absorbing significant short-term losses to drive legitimate operators out of the business.”
Haymon makes it a policy not to speak with the media, and no representative was available for comment Wednesday morning. A spokesman for Waddell & Reed also did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Boxing has long operated under a wide-ranging set of regulations that differ from state to state and been run by promoters who might control mini-fiefdoms but still worked together to stage fights. The lawsuit is just the latest to accuse Haymon of attempting to turn the sport into a monopoly of sorts with an increasing numbers of fighters and television networks answering solely to him.
Arum is the third major promoter to sue Haymon in the past year. In May, on the heels of Mayweather’s victory over Arum’s fighter Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions sued Haymon and Waddell & Reed for $300 million, making similar antitrust claims.
The Top Rank suit contends that “Haymon is rigging the boxing industry so they can act as manager, promoter, sponsor, and ticket broker for nearly every major professional boxer competing in the United States, all in violation of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act, the Sherman Act, and a host of other state and federal laws.”
The suit accuses Haymon of forbidding his fighters from being promoted by other companies and barring them from fighting or even sparring with non-Haymon boxers. The suit also alleges that Haymon is blocking other promoters from TV opportunities and negotiating with major venues.
Just last month, according to the lawsuit: “Haymon reserved prime locations such as Staples Center and The Forum [ in the Los Angeles area] so that they could not be booked by the competition, and then canceled after the competitors were forced to seek other locations. The tactic unfairly injured his competitors and deprived consumers of access to events with no legitimate business purpose other than to unfairly harm competition.”
Haymon, 59, is rarely seen at his shows and prefers operating behind the scenes. Arum said he spoke just twice to Haymon in negotiating the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, which shattered pay-per-view records and reportedly generated more than $400 million in TV revenue alone. Before entering the boxing business, Haymon made his mark promoting concerts.
“Given Haymon’s experience in the music business,” the Top Rank lawsuit states, “it is no surprise that his current monopoliztic tactics in boxing mirror the predatory ‘payola’ practices employed in the music industry in the mid-20th century.”
While the PBC series has made the sport more accessible than it has been in years, critics have lined up to criticize his practices and motivations.
“Al Haymon’s goal isn’t to save the sport,” boxing historian Thomas Hauser said in a recent interview. “Al Haymon’s goal is to make money for Al Haymon and his investors. In and of itself, there’s nothing wrong with that. But in some respects, Al Haymon is Don King for the new millennium.”