A federal judge in California on Friday dismissed Canelo Alvarez’s lawsuit against DAZN, Golden Boy Promotions and Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya on technical legal grounds, and gave Alvarez until Sept. 28 to refile the suit correctly.

Assuming the suit is refiled correctly, there are two astonishing allegations in the suit that are related.

First, the suit alleges that De La Hoya gave the final right to approve Alvarez’s opponents to both Alvarez and DAZN. Alvarez had that right in his Oct. 17 agreement he signed with Golden Boy, but the suit alleges DAZN acquired that right in its deal with Golden Boy that was finalized on Oct. 11 in exchange for the right to broadcast Alvarez’s fights.

Sources said Alvarez was furious when he discovered that, and the DAZN deal nearly fell apart at the last minute. According to his suit, “Notably, the Alvarez Contract did not mention that DAZN would have any right to accept or reject any opponents selected by Alvarez.”

That’s when the second, even more astounding allegation comes in. Paragraph 31 of Alvarez’s original lawsuit notes that De La Hoya personally guaranteed liability for DAZN’s payments to Alvarez.

Thus, De La Hoya could potentially be on the hook for the $280 million Alvarez is seeking in the suit.


The suit notes that DAZN agreed to pay Golden Boy $40 million per Alvarez bout, and Alvarez was to get $35 million of that each fight. The suit said that Golden Boy received a “reduced license fee,” for the Dec. 15 bout with Rocky Fielding. Alvarez was paid $15 million for that fight, the suit reported, but Golden Boy’s share is unknown.

Paragraph 31 makes a considerable allegation against De La Hoya. It reads:

The Alvarez Contract required Golden Boy to pay Alvarez guaranteed payments totaling $365 million for his next eleven boxing matches ($15 million for the December 2018 bout with Rocky Fielding and $35 million dollars for each of his next ten bouts thereafter), expected to be on or about May 5 and September 16 of the years 2019 to 2023. Pursuant to the Alvarez Contract, Oscar De La Hoya, Golden Boy Promotions’ CEO, personally assumed liability for all guaranteed payments.

As part of the deal it made to bring Alvarez’s fights to DAZN, Golden Boy negotiated another deal with the streaming service to put its other shows on DAZN.

This was critical for Golden Boy because less than three weeks prior to Alvarez signing with DAZN, HBO announced it would no longer do boxing following an Oct. 27, 2018, card. At that point, Golden Boy rivals Top Rank and Premier Boxing Champions had television output deals. Top Rank had a long-term deal with ESPN while the PBC was working with Fox and Showtime.

It would have been a killer for Golden Boy not to have a deal with a broadcast service that would have produced regular income for it.

That irritated Alvarez as well. Though none of the parties have commented publicly, several sources have said Alvarez’s issues are more with De La Hoya personally and Golden Boy than with DAZN. ESPN Deportes quoted Alvarez manager Eddy Reynoso as saying, “It would be a lie to say that we have a great relationship [with Golden Boy]. We already had some disagreements behind the scenes. There wasn’t a great relationship.”

Alvarez and DAZN did not have a contract with each other. The contracts at issue in this case were between Alvarez, Golden Boy and De La Hoya on one side and Golden Boy, De La Hoya and DAZN on the other.

The lawsuit also would allow DAZN’s lawyers to talk directly with Alvarez and his lawyers. If there is no lawsuit, Golden Boy could accuse DAZN of tortious interference in their deal.

Though the suit has been withdrawn, this case isn’t going away any time soon.

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