Showtime Networks has been sued by Floyd Mayweather Jr., who says he’s owed hundreds of millions of dollars in fight earnings fraudulently diverted by the company to his former manager.
Mayweather, in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in California state court, accuses Showtime of participating in a yearslong scheme of “financial manipulation and self-dealing” by his ex-manager, Al Haymon, intended to steal vast sums of money from him by funneling fight revenues into secret accounts he didn’t control. He seeks at least $340 million under claims related to breach of fiduciary duty and fraud.
With roughly $1.2 billion in career earnings across his fights, Mayweather is the highest-paid boxer in history. He got guaranteed purses of $100 million for his bouts with Conor McGregor and Manny Pacquiao, not including his share of the enormous profits from the record-shattering events. He’s made flashy showings of his wealth, at times posing in photos with stacks of cash.
Mayweather in 2013 left HBO to sign an exclusive multi-fight deal with Showtime. His fights with Pacquiao and McGregor were broadcast under the agreement, which was the richest in boxing history at the time.
Instead of paying him directly, Mayweather says Showtime wired his share of fight proceeds to an account controlled by his tax lawyer. He faults the network for the subsequent theft of the money by Haymon.
When his new management team in 2024 requested detail breakdowns for certain bouts, Showtime declined to produce them, according to the complaint. It later asserted a statute of limitations defense, saying that any claims related to fights in 2015 are time-barred. Haymon told Mayweather that the records were “lost due to a flood” in a story facility, the suit alleges.
Mayweather argues that Showtime should’ve been aware of the theft because Haymon, who’s not named in the complaint, wasn’t behaving like a typical manager.
“These baseless claims lack legal or factual merit,” said a Paramount spokesperson in a statement. “We strongly reject them and will respond accordingly through the court process.”
Under a 2005 oral deal, Haymon agreed to act as Mayweather’s manager for a 10 percent fee. It expired a year later, though Haymon continued in that role for the next 15 years. He handled contract negotiations, TV deals, sponsorships and investments for his client.
In the suit, Mayweather points to banking records that show large transfers to companies controlled by Haymon that were falsely labeled “repayment” or “loan payoff.” Tens of millions of dollars, he says, were moved to Alan Haymon Development shortly after major fights.
Other records show numerous one-off payments, the suit alleges. These include transactions for as much as $15 million on dates unrelated to any fight, with memos like “expenses” accompanying many of them.
To hide the stolen funds, Haymon only showed Floyd certain documents to keep the boxer from learning the exact sums earned from fights, according to the complaint. On one occasion the manager altered the date of a contract to misrepresent when it was signed, the suit says.
Another issue: discrepancies in financial documents allegedly showing inflated expense reimbursements charged against the Pacquiao fight, whose funds were also used for a $20 million reimbursement for the 2015 Andre Berto bout. These charges, Mayweather says, imply that the Pacquiao revenue pool was used as a slush fund to pay unrelated costs, like the Berto payout.
Credit: Hollywood Reporter
