Frank Warren - "Haye pulled out due to money"

[JT Rock]

When a fight is made, particularly one featuring fighters and promoters from two different countries, a contract between the promoters and a special bank account hold the revenues from the fight and dictate how the money is shared out after the fight. The special bank account is called an escrow account and is nominally controlled by a third party, normally a lawyer who has no connection to the various people/companies involed in the promotion. The money that TV companies like Setanta pay to show the fight is paid up front into this escrow account, and the contract governing the account dictates how the money is to be paid out after the fight. Or if the fight is cancelled it mandates repayment of the money back to the TV companies. So the Setanta money was already sitting in a bank account out of the reach of Setanta and Haye when the fight contract was signed. All Haye had to do to get it was turn up and fight. There was no reason for Haye to ask to be paid upfront and he'd happily signed a contract that paid him after the fight. There was no way that, had the fight gone ahead, that he wouldn't have been paid.

Don't forget Warren is involved in a lawsuit with Setanta after he unilaterally opted out of his contract with them and went back to Sky. Now that Setanta have gone bust the administrators running Setanta will drop the case so Warren just taking advantage of the situation to badmouth a rival promoter now that there'll be no legal consequences to running his mouth. The whole story is total bs, it's just Frank doing his thing.

Usually when a business is going under there has been lawsuits and creditors already barking. That money could have been freezed etc.

You never know, I mean how many times does a big network fold like this?

[Kirkland Laing]

When a fight is made, particularly one featuring fighters and promoters from two different countries, a contract between the promoters and a special bank account hold the revenues from the fight and dictate how the money is shared out after the fight. The special bank account is called an escrow account and is nominally controlled by a third party, normally a lawyer who has no connection to the various people/companies involed in the promotion. The money that TV companies like Setanta pay to show the fight is paid up front into this escrow account, and the contract governing the account dictates how the money is to be paid out after the fight. Or if the fight is cancelled it mandates repayment of the money back to the TV companies. So the Setanta money was already sitting in a bank account out of the reach of Setanta and Haye when the fight contract was signed. All Haye had to do to get it was turn up and fight. There was no reason for Haye to ask to be paid upfront and he'd happily signed a contract that paid him after the fight. There was no way that, had the fight gone ahead, that he wouldn't have been paid.

Don't forget Warren is involved in a lawsuit with Setanta after he unilaterally opted out of his contract with them and went back to Sky. Now that Setanta have gone bust the administrators running Setanta will drop the case so Warren just taking advantage of the situation to badmouth a rival promoter now that there'll be no legal consequences to running his mouth. The whole story is total bs, it's just Frank doing his thing.

Usually when a business is going under there has been lawsuits and creditors already barking. That money could have been freezed etc.

You never know, I mean how many times does a big network fold like this?

Under bankrupy law there are levels of creditor seniority and laws over existing contractual obligations from the firms that went bankrupt. Anything that Setanta already paid out under a contract as part of the business would be safe even from senior creditors. Once it's been paid out it's been paid out, creditors only get a share of whatever assets remain in the business.