Golden Boy Promotions yesterday filed a $300M lawsuit in L.A. federal court against boxing promoter AL HAYMON, his related companies and Waddell & Reed Financial, "alleging they’ve repeatedly violated antitrust laws and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act," according to Bob Velin of USA TODAY. Golden Boy in a statement alleged that since Haymon launched "Premier Boxing Champions" this year, he has "repeatedly broken the letter and spirit of the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act that is meant to protect fighters from exploitation." The statement added Haymon as part of an anti-competitive conspiracy has "entered into agreements to restrain trade in a substantial portion of the market for promotion of Championship-Caliber Boxers." The lawsuit "alleges numerous violations of the Ali Act and antitrust statutes by Haymon, including that he routinely serves as both manager of his fighters and promoter of their fights, even though such a dual role is prohibited by the act" (USA TODAY, 5/7). ESPN.com's Dan Rafael reported many in the boxing industry, including Golden Boy, believe that Haymon is "functioning as a de facto promoter in addition to managing or advising a stable of more than 180 fighters." Many of those fighters "used to have ties to Golden Boy" before Golden Boy President & co-Founder OSCAR DE LA HOYA and former CEO RICHARD SCHAEFER -- "a close Haymon ally -- had a falling out last year." One of the main reasons for De La Hoya's falling out with Schaefer was that, "under Schaefer's watch, Golden Boy was promoting most of Haymon's top fighters, such as FLOYD MAYWEATHER, DANNY GARCIA, MARCOS MAIDANA, DEONTAY WILDER, KEITH THURMAN and many others, but it did not have promotional contracts with them" (ESPN.com, 5/6).
