Almost eight years after retiring from professional boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is climbing into the legal right today to take on Paramount-owned Showtime over “hundreds of millions of dollars in the misappropriated funds and damages resulting from a long-running and elaborate scheme of financial fraud.”
Estimated to have close to a billion bucks over his 21-year pro career, the undefeated boxer wants over “$340,000,000” in damages from the premium cable network, a fraud and unjust enrichment lawsuit filed Tuesday in LA Superior Court says. Also suing Stephen Espinoza, ex-chief of the now shuttered Showtime Sports, Mayweather claims the net still owes him around $20 million from his 2015 welterweight championship fight against Andre Berto.
Basically Mayweather and his attorney say that vast sums of money due the boxer known as “Money” was knowingly deposited by Espinoza and Showtime into accounts controlled by his ex-manager Al Haymon. Accounts that Mayweather says he knew nothing about and apparently saw little from.
Oddly enough, while repeatedly citing his former manager and long time advisor (now ex-advisor) Haymon as the mastermind of the alleged big bucks scam, the man Tuesday’s filing describes as a “father figure”to Mayweather is not actually named as a defendant in the 25-page complaint.
Showtime
Along with cameo appearances by HBO and Vegas’ MGM Grand, what is mentioned in the filing by Costa Mesa attorney Samini Block is the accusation that “over approximately two decades of managing Mayweather, Haymon engaged in a pattern of financial manipulation and self-dealing behind Mayweather’s back.”
Now, in a world where most sports have an shady underbelly and the fixes are often in one way or another, no one is every going to tell you that boxing of all competitions n an avarice or sticky fingers free zone. Certainly, as too many prizefighters like the now 48-year-old and occasional exhibition bout fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. have learned the hard way, not paying attention to the money and the purse has consequences above and beyond the fine print in or out of your prime.
To that, Tuesday’s complaint also notes that when “Mayweather’s new team” went to Showtime in 2024 for documents and accounting related to the big ticket pay-per-view Manny Pacquiao fight of 2015 or the much watched PPV 2017 dust-up with MMA star Conor McGregor, they got TKO’d. Mayweather’s Richard Schaefer-led reps were informed by Haymon and Showtime that the materials they sought were “lost in a flood” or “stored off-site and not readily accessible.”
(L-R) Floyd Mayweather & Conor McGregor during their final press conference for their Aug. 26, 2017 fight (Photo: Getty)
Mayweather Productions
All of which adds up to, according to the complaint (with some sarcasm about said flood), tainting the notoriously livin’ large and 50-0 record holding Mayweather with “(false) rumors that he was ‘broke’” and led to “reputational harm and mental anguish.”
Today’s complaint postulates that Stephen Espinoza, who left Showtime almost three years ago once the plug was pulled on the Sports division by the pre-David Ellison regime, is working with the very Al Haymon. The continuing connection between the ex-Ziffren Brittenham attorney and the little seen or heard from manager he allegedly aided while at Showtime in siphoning off cash from Floyd Mayweather makes for a great added twist to the tale. However, Deadline cannot verify the validity of that information or the duo’s ongoing professional relationship at Premier Boxing Champions or otherwise.
Responding to Deadline’s request for comment on Mayweather’s suit and its allegations, a spokesperson for Showtime’s parent company Paramount said late Tuesday: “These baseless claims lack legal or factual merit. We strongly reject them and will respond accordingly through the court process.”
It’s on. Get your tickets and ringside seats now.
