source: abscbn
MANILA, Philippines – Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. won the first round in its legal battle against rival outfit Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) over the promotional rights of Filipino champion Nonito Donaire Jr.
Retired judge Daniel Weinstein, acting as the arbiter between Top Rank and Oscar de la Hoya’s GBP, ruled that GBP violated a previous agreement with Arum’s firm which prohibits poaching of each other’s fighters.
“We brought a claim in front of judge Weinstein and he heard argument and received extensive briefing on it, and, yesterday, and, today, he agreed that Golden Boy violated the agreement and issued an injunction restricting and restraining Golden Boy from proceeding under its purported agreement with Mr. Donaire,” Top Rank’s lawyer Dan Petrocelli told Boxingscene.com.
Petrocelli said the ruling effectively voided GBP’s recent signing of Donaire.
"What was before the judge yesterday, before judge Weinstein, was the issue that Golden Boy signing Mr. Donaire, and they can not go forward with that agreement any more. So it invalidates that signing and that agreement," he said.
This means that Donaire’s May 28 fight date, if it pushes through, will be promoted by Top Rank Inc.
Last March 16, Donaire signed up with GBP shortly after declaring himself a free agent.
Top Rank, however, claimed that the Filipino boxer still has an existing contract with them.
Arum said the “Filipino Flash’s” contract with Top Rank remains valid until June 26 this year. He added that the deal has a “12-month extension" clause at Top Rank’s sole discretion.
Donaire, who recently won the World Boxing Council (WBC) and World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight titles after battling Mexico’s Fernando Montiel, has been under Top Rank for nearly 3 years.
Bob Arum and GBP's Oscar de la Hoya.
‘It’s not yet over’
GBP’s counsel, Judd Burstein, said their legal battle against Top Rank is far from over.
He stressed that while the ruling invalidates Donaire's contract with GBP, there is still the issue of the validity of the Filipino Flash’s contract with Top Rank.
"They got a preliminary ruling, not that Top Rank's contract is valid, but that pursuant to a term sheet between Top Rank and Golden Boy, that Golden Boy did not have the right to sign Nonito Donaire without a ruling that Donaire was, in fact, free. That's the only ruling. So now, we're going to be fighting over whether or not Donaire is free," Burstein said.
He cited the Filipino boxer’s claim that Top Rank breached its contract with Donaire.
"It's an opening skirmish. It's like there is, to us, it's black and white that the contract has been breached. Top Rank has no answer, and, in fact, the first answer that they provided was just a demonstrable lie,” said Burstein.
“All that the arbitrator ruled is that because of the peculiar agreement between Top Rank and Golden Boy, that neither Golden Boy nor Top Rank can sign a fighter who has an agreement with the fighter unless there is a determination that the contract is no longer binding. Our next move is to get a finding that the contract is no longer binding," he added.
Weinstein also acted as the arbitrator between Top Rank and GBP in 2007, when the two outfits battled over the promotional rights of boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao.
Top Rank was eventually awarded Pacquiao's promotional rights but was ordered to give GBP a percentage of the revenues from the Filipino's fights.
source: abscbn
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