Guest
Guest
 | | Subject: Gary Shaw is suing Timothy Bradley Thu Jul 21, 2011 4:53 pm | |
| - Quote :
- Gary Shaw and Ken Thompson, the co-promoters of unified junior welterweight titlist Timothy Bradley Jr., have sued Bradley in Florida State Court for breach of contract over his refusal to go through with a fight against fellow titlist Amir Khan, which had been scheduled for Saturday in Las Vegas.
Khan instead will fight Zab Judah in a unification fight Saturday night in Las Vegas while Bradley is on the sidelines indefinitely. Shaw and Thompson claim Bradley still owes them one more fight.
Shaw and Thompson also sued Cameron Dunkin, Bradley's co-manager, in the same lawsuit, which was filed July 1 in the 17th Judicial Circuit Court in Broward Country, Fla.
Shaw and Thompson are seeking damages on income they say they would have earned on a Bradley-Khan fight. They estimate their 20 percent share of the profits -- the other 80 percent would have gone to Bradley -- would have been "in excess of $450,000."
They are also seeking an injunction against Bradley, who has declared himself a free agent, that would prevent him from signing, negotiating with or fighting for any other promoter.
"Obviously, I hope Timmy will come back to Thompson and I and resume his career in a positive way, the way it was going," Shaw told ESPN.com.
They allege that Dunkin tortiously interfered with their promotional agreement by convincing Bradley not to go through with the fight and for talking to other promoters about working with Bradley while he was still under contract to them.
"I can't comment on it. I have an attorney and there will be a response," Dunkin told ESPN.com.
According to the suit, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN.com, Shaw and Thompson claim that in October 2010 they signed Bradley to a two-fight contract extension to coincide with a two-fight deal Shaw had negotiated for Bradley to appear exclusively on HBO.
Bradley's extension was due to expire on June 30 with the first bout taking place Jan. 29, when he defeated Devon Alexander in a unification bout. When HBO scheduled the second date for July 23 -- after the expiration date -- Shaw and Thompson claim that Dunkin agreed at a Feb. 7 meeting in Las Vegas to wait the additional three weeks for the fight with Khan to take place.
"I read recently that he said he wants to fight the winner of the Khan-Judah fight. Huh? He had the opportunity to fight Khan (on Saturday) and he didn't take it because someone convinced him 23 days was too long to wait," Shaw said. "It doesn't mean the next deal he is offered for that fight will be better deal than the one we had for him."
Although the promoters claim they only owed Bradley $1.2 million for the fight under their two-fight extension, they eventually upped the offer to a minimum of $1.4 million against 80 percent of the net profits. The suit claims that Bradley stood to earn about $1.8 million total.
The increase came when Golden Boy Promotions, Khan's promoter, found out Bradley had rejected the fight and Khan, who badly wanted to fight Bradley, authorized Golden Boy to cut Bradley in for 50 percent of whatever television money was generated in his home country of England, as well as in the Middle East and Africa -- territories Khan controlled. However, Bradley and Dunkin declined.
The suit claims Dunkin had been negotiating for several months with other unnamed promoters for Bradley's services. It was an open secret in boxing circles that Top Rank had expressed interest in Bradley as a potential opponent for Manny Pacquiao, and Dunkin has close ties to Top Rank.
"Ken and myself are prepared to do whatever has to be done," Shaw said. "If it means a long and protracted litigation we're prepared for that. But we're all hopeful it doesn't get to that. I don't understand what Bradley gained by not fighting the fight with Khan, which would have satisfied the two-fight deal he had with us and the two-fight deal he had with HBO." http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/6788333/timothy-bradley-jr-sued-promoters-contract-breach |
|
