Golden Boy Promotions' antitrust lawsuit against PBC creator Al Haymon dismissed by judge

A federal judge granted Al Haymon's motion for summary judgment Thursday in Los Angeles, dismissing the lawsuit filed by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions in 2015 claiming the Premier Boxing Champions creator engaged in antitrust practices.

Judge John F. Walter concluded that Golden Boy Promotions "failed to demonstrate that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to any of their federal claims for relief," according to the 24-page ruling obtained by USA TODAY Sports. Golden Boy was seeking more than $300 million in damages.

"(Haymon) was (overjoyed) but he's always believed that what he was doing was right, both for the boxers and the industry," Michael Williams of Quinn Emanuel (Law Firm), the lead counsel for Haymon Sports, told USA TODAY Sports. "This has been hanging over his head for a couple of years and has been a distraction for what he's trying to do. He was very much relieved and happy to see that the court got it right.

"The irony of it was the lawsuit was making a mockery of the antitrust laws. Antitrust is there to promote and protect competition and not necessarily to protect a single competitor from losing their grip. Golden Boy and Top Rank, which had filed a previous lawsuit, really had a chokehold on the industry, and Haymon comes along and is trying to get better deals for his boxers and increase the popularity of the sport and try to get it back on TV, and the results were it actually did that.

"You have more boxing out there, boxers getting paid better and more people can watch boxing on free TV and not pay so much for PPV."

The similar lawsuit filed by Bob Arum's Top Rank Inc. was settled last year. Williams said that Haymon will be entitled to recover costs of deposition and filing fees, so in addition to the money Golden Boy paid on their end for the suit, they could end up losing a substantial amount of funds.

Haymon, who manages over 200 fighters, entered into time-buy agreements with networks in 2015 such as Fox, NBC, CBS and ESPN in an attempt to bring boxing back to network television. Using a $585 million investment by Waddell & Reed, Haymon's goal was to establish the PBC brand as a major sports property.

The suit followed a $10.5 million settlement paid out by Haymon in 2015 after the departure of several fighters from De La Hoya's company. Haymon-managed boxers like Deontay Wilder, Leo Santa Cruz, Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia fought under the Golden Boy banner, but didn't have contracts.

Golden Boy took issue and contended that Haymon Sports forced its boxers to work with "sham" promoters such as DiBella Entertainment and TGB Promotions and prevented fighters from entering into contracts with Golden Boy and other "legitimate" promoters.

Under the Muhammad Ali act, which serves as a firewall between manager and promoter, a manager has a fiduciary duty to the fighter alone and can't also serve as promoter.

"However, not a single boxer has testified that he has been coerced into selecting a particular promoter or prevented from selecting the promoter of his choice," Judge Walter wrote. "In fact, Defendants have submitted the declarations of six boxers who testify directly to the contrary.

"In addition, it is undisputed that Haymon Sports has worked with promoters across the industry (including Golden Boy, Top Rank, DiBella Entertainment, and others) to secure high-paid bouts and title fights."

Haymon-managed boxers have been provided as opponents in at least three fights with Golden Boy in the past two years, including the Deontay Wilder-Bermane Stiverne fight, the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan bout (Golden Boy's most lucrative of 2016) and the featherweight tilt between Robinson Castellanos and Oscar Escandon.

Haymon also manages Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., who is set to face Alvarez on May 6 in what is being touted the "biggest all-Mexican fight in boxing history."

"We are obviously disappointed with the judge's ruling," Golden Boy Promotions spokesperson Stefan Friedman said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. "However, our top priority at Golden Boy is putting on the best fights for the fans and promoting the best shows in the business - we will continue to focus our energies on working with anyone and everyone to make the best fights happen."

Golden Boy contended that "Haymon Sports is the true promoter of the PBC fights because it performs certain traditional functions of promoters," including negotiating TV contracts, facilitating the selection of venues, paying the fighters' purses and the purchase of advertising.

The promoters that work with the PBC strongly disagreed that they are "sham" promoters and testified that their duties are "substantially the same as their duties for non-PBC events."

This includes maximizing event revenues, generating media attention for events, coordinating with state boxing commissions, selling tickets, event logistics, taking care of travel, accommodations, on-site coordination with the fighters, their camps, the media, and all other stakeholders.

"The only thing sham was their lawsuit!" DiBella told USA TODAY Sports. "Now everyone can get back to working together instead of wasting time."

Judge Walters admits that Golden Boy correctly argued "that the number of fights involving a Haymon-managed boxer and a Golden-Boy promoted boxer is substantially less than one would expect given Golden Boy's share of the promotion market, but also concluded that "no reasonable jury could find the existence of a tie when Golden Boy has not submitted a single proposal to Haymon, Haymon Sports, or any of the other Haymon Entities for the promotion of any Haymon Sports' boxers during the Covered Period.

"As such, there is absolutely no evidence that Haymon Sports has ever refused a request by Golden Boy to promote one of its boxers during the Covered Period.

" … In fact, the evidence suggests that it is Golden Boy, not Defendants, that has refused to deal with the Haymon Entities during the pendency of this lawsuit."

The ruling points to a May 2015 conversation between Golden Boy matchmaker Robert Diaz and the manager of heavyweight contender Luis Ortiz, who at the time was promoted by Golden Boy.

When it was suggested Ortiz fight a Haymon-managed fighter, Diaz responded "Are you serious? You do know we have sued Haymon right?"

Judge Walter concluded the ruling by stating "plaintiffs have been unable to present any evidence of harm to competition. Instead, Plaintiffs have merely presented evidence of harm to themselves."

Williams said Haymon "just wanted his boxers to get a fair deal and Golden Boy was insisting on signing these guys to oppressive, long-term contracts, the same kind of contract Oscar De La Hoya had to sue Top Rank to get out of his deal in 2000. And the same kind of contract Bernard Hopkins (a minority owner of Golden Boy) had to sue to get out of his contract.

"So Haymon's approach is, look, promoters should be competing for the boxers. And you shouldn't be beholden to a promoter for your entire career, when you can be put on the shelf at any time and have no way of getting out of the contract. So he brought the power back to the boxers, who are out there putting their lives on the line every time they fight. So the result is, his fighters are getting paid better, getting better exposure."

(Photo by Alexis Cuarezma/Getty Images)