Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Hindi lang P160M: Pacquiao could lose half a billion pesos if Paradigm’s lawsuit succeeds – ESPN report

Embattled Senator Manny Pacquiao is supposedly at risk of losing close to half a billion pesos if the lawsuit filed against him by the California-based promotion outfit Paradigm Sports succeeds.

This was according to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi after he was told by Paradigm’s legal counsel Judd Burstein that the latter’s client “is seeking damages from Pacquiao that could reach into the eight figures”—which is equivalent to at least $10 million or about P486.2 million.

Burstein told ESPN that the outfit headed by Iraqi-American promoter Audie Attar has the exclusive rights to negotiate Pacquiao’s next two bouts, noting that Philippine lawmaker’s upcoming welterweight-title unification showdown with undefeated American foe Errol Spence Jr. was allegedly “brokered behind the firm’s back.”

Mr. Attar’s legal counsel also claimed that Paradigm Sports— the same promotional outfit that managed Irish mixed-martial arts fighter Connor McGregor—has already paid the only eight-division world boxing champion a $3.3 million (P160 million) contractual advance for his supposed bout with Mexican-American four-division champ Mikey Garcia, before signing with Al Haymon’s PBC Sports for the Spence fight this coming August.

According to Burstein, Pacquiao’s camp allegedly also has “refused to return” the multi-million-dollar cash advance despite the supposed cancellation of the senator’s bout against Garcia.

Aside from the multi-million-dollar lawsuit against Pacquiao for alleged breach of contract, the management of Paradigm Sports last week has also sought an injunction before the Orange County Civil Court in Los Angeles, California to prevent the Filipino boxing champ from fighting the undefeated Spence on August 21 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

In a statement on Monday, Pacquiao stressed that his upcoming bout with Spence will proceed as scheduled and the lawsuit filed by Attar’s promotional outfit has “no merit,” adding that the lawsuit which he described as “frivolous” only “intends to distract my preparations for a historic fight.”

Pacquiao’s camp stressed that “Paradigm Sports appears to have had no intention of fulfilling its contractual agreements he never would have entered into any relationship with them.”

The senator’s legal team in the United States which is under the Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Attorneys said that the lawsuit filed by the Paradigm management “will fail for numerous reasons.” (CMC)