Boxing Lawsuits: Mayweather, Tyson, and Jake Paul Cases

The biggest boxing lawsuits of 2025 and 2026 are not clustered around one case but spread across a half-dozen high-dollar fights in court. The largest by claimed damages is Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions seeking roughly $1 billion from Sela and TKO Group over the formation of Zuffa Boxing. Don King faces a $3 billion fraud claim tied to a canceled anniversary of the Ali–Foreman fight. Floyd Mayweather is suing his former money manager for $175 million. Top Rank’s president is accused in federal court of hiding ties to a sanctioned alleged crime boss. Ryan Garcia, Mike Tyson, Ric Flair, and Jake Paul are all in or near litigation of their own. Taken together, these cases map the pressure points of a sport in transition.

Zuffa Boxing vs. Queensberry and BOXXER

Zuffa Boxing was formed in 2025 as a joint venture between Saudi events company Sela, which holds a 60% stake, and TKO Group Holdings, the UFC’s parent company.¹ It is led by Saudi official Turki Alalshikh, UFC CEO Dana White, and WWE president Nick Khan, and it aims to run boxing on a league model with one belt per division, mirroring the UFC’s centralized structure. A five-year U.S. broadcast deal with Paramount, reported at $100 million per year, gave the venture immediate reach.² By mid-2026 Zuffa had signed roughly 93 fighters.

In February 2026, Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions sued Sela and TKO Group for up to $1 billion (about £740 million) for breach of contract.³ Queensberry says it signed exclusive agreements with Sela in September 2023 covering access to boxing data and expertise, and that Sela and TKO built Zuffa Boxing in violation of those exclusives. A Sela spokesperson called the claims “unfounded.”⁴

Weeks before Zuffa’s inaugural UK event in Bournemouth on June 6, 2026, British promoter BOXXER sued Zuffa Boxing, Sky Sports, and promoter Shaa Wasmund in British courts for unlawful contractual interference.⁵ BOXXER, led by Ben Shalom, alleges Zuffa signed fighters still under contract with the promotion:

Chris Billam-Smith, former WBO cruiserweight champion, was subject to an exclusive negotiating period and a matching right held by BOXXER. Billam-Smith says his contract expired at the end of 2025.
Scottish middleweight Sam Hickey was allegedly bound by a long-term deal when he announced a Zuffa signing in May 2026.
Jack Massey has at least one fight left on his BOXXER contract, according to the promoter.

BOXXER sought injunctive relief to keep the fighters off the Zuffa card.⁶ Shalom called Zuffa’s conduct “scandalous”; Dana White publicly dismissed the suit. Sky Sports had held an exclusive broadcast deal with BOXXER from 2021 until June 2025 before signing multi-year agreements with both Zuffa and Jake Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions.⁵

Don King and the Rumble in the Jungle 2 Case

In early 2025, sports manager Cecil Miller and his companies BYD Sports and BYD Management sued Don King and Don King Productions in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for $3 billion.⁷ The complaint pleads fraud, defamation, and breach of contract tied to a canceled event, “Rumble in the Jungle 2,” planned for Nigeria to mark 50 years since the 1974 Ali–Foreman heavyweight title fight.

Miller says King blessed the anniversary project and was looped into planning, then disavowed him and sent cease-and-desist letters to Nigerian officials claiming Miller had misrepresented his authorization.⁸ The $3 billion figure combines an estimated $600 million in inflation-adjusted gross revenue from the original fight with $2.4 billion in prospective damages.⁷ Early in the case, a judge ordered the plaintiffs to clarify the citizenship of the LLC members by January 17, 2025, after the amended complaint failed to establish diversity jurisdiction.

Keane v. Top Rank: Allegations of Secret Ties to a Sanctioned Figure

On February 27, 2025, boxing manager William Keane sued Top Rank Boxing and its president, Todd duBoef, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, seeking more than $25 million in unpaid fees.⁹ The real heat in the complaint is elsewhere. Keane alleges duBoef secretly kept business arrangements with Daniel Kinahan, an alleged Irish drug gang leader sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in April 2022.¹⁰

According to the suit, Keane was hired in 2019 to broker an arrangement with Kinahan to secure Tyson Fury for the Top Rank roster. The complaint alleges duBoef feared ESPN, Top Rank’s broadcast partner under a deal worth $90 million a year, would terminate the media rights contract if Kinahan’s role became public, instructed Keane to lie to ESPN executives about the connections, and paid Kinahan “under the table” as a top international consultant.⁹ The complaint also claims Top Rank lacked the funds to underwrite the purse for the second Fury–Deontay Wilder bout and that Kinahan secretly bankrolled the event.¹¹

Treasury’s 2022 action designated the Kinahan Organized Crime Group as a transnational criminal organization tied to narcotics and firearms trafficking, money laundering, and murder, and a $5 million bounty was offered for information leading to Daniel Kinahan’s arrest. Top Rank CEO Bob Arum publicly said after the sanctions that his company would not deal with Kinahan.¹² The case (No. 2:25-cv-01694) remains active as of mid-2026, with discovery underway and no settlement on the docket.¹³ ESPN’s deal with Top Rank expired in 2025 and was not renewed.¹¹

Floyd Mayweather’s $175 Million Fraud Suit

In May 2026, Floyd Mayweather Jr. sued Jona Rechnitz and Ayel Frist in Manhattan Supreme Court for $175 million, alleging a multi-year fraudulent scheme that drained his fortune through manipulated real estate deals, unauthorized asset pledges, and diverted funds.¹⁴ The complaint says Rechnitz became the de facto manager of Mayweather’s investment, banking, and real estate assets in 2024, and sets out the alleged conduct in several pieces:

Real estate misrepresentation on a 1,000-apartment Manhattan portfolio, with documentation allegedly showing Mayweather received only a 5% stake in one LLC rather than the ownership interest promised.
A $7.5 million wire from a Mayweather company to a Florida LLC owned by Frist for what the complaint calls a fictitious 12-month investment.
Use of roughly $100 million of Mayweather’s jewelry as collateral for a $13 million loan from Miami dealers without authorization.
Coerced signature on a bill of sale for Mayweather’s Gulfstream jet, with proceeds applied to an unrelated obligation.
A $15 million real estate settlement allegedly transferred to a Florida shell company controlled by Frist.

Rechnitz’s attorney, Morris Missry, called the claims “utterly baseless” and said the defense intends to expose Mayweather’s “gambling issues, prolific spending habits, monies owed to third-party creditors and IRS tax liens.”¹⁴ Rechnitz is a convicted felon: in 2016 he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud for his role in two bribery schemes, including corruption of NYPD officers and a $60,000 bribe to the president of the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association that steered $20 million in union pension funds into the failing hedge fund Platinum Partners.¹⁵ Mayweather publicly defended his association with Rechnitz as recently as May 2025.¹⁶

Fanmio v. Ryan Garcia

In March 2025, digital sports platform Fanmio sued Ryan Garcia and his company King Ryan Enterprises in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Case No. 2:2025cv02221) for fraudulent inducement, tortious interference, and breach of contract over a canceled pay-per-view exhibition.¹⁷ Fanmio had been promoting a December 2024 event in Tokyo pitting Garcia against kickboxer Rukiya Anpo. Garcia withdrew on December 15, 2024, citing a wrist injury. Fanmio claims Garcia never intended to participate and that Golden Boy Promotions “actively worked to sabotage the event,” pointing to Garcia’s subsequent fight against Rolly Romero as evidence the injury was fabricated.¹⁸ The platform claims losses of more than $1 million in promotion costs and roughly $10 million in lost profits. Garcia’s attorney called the suit meritless.

Golden Boy was voluntarily dismissed in May 2025.¹⁹ Garcia and King Ryan Enterprises filed an answer and jury demand in June 2025. The case has been referred to court-ordered mediation, with a jury trial set for September 21, 2026.

Mike Tyson and Ric Flair’s $50 Million Cannabis Suit

In December 2025, Mike Tyson and Ric Flair, together with Carma HoldCo and licensing company LGNDS, sued four former Carma executives in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Tyson v. Bronstein (Case No. 72062643) seeks more than $50 million.²⁰ The case centers on cannabis licensing brands including “Tyson 2.0” and “Ric Flair Drip,” not fight contracts, but it involves two of the sport’s biggest names.

The 76-page, 21-count complaint names former Carma president and chairman Chad Bronstein, former CEO Adam Wilks, former chief legal and licensing officer Nicole Cosby, and shareholder James Case, alleging a “brazen RICO conspiracy” involving wire fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, and securities fraud.²¹ More than $1 million in company funds was allegedly spent on personal expenses including private jets, yacht costs, home renovations, and mortgage payments, and Bronstein is accused of charging roughly $15,000 of company money for a watch for Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay without authorization. The complaint also alleges Carma’s valuation was inflated to $120 million from an actual $80 million when the defendants sold their own shares to investors, netting more than $1 million.²⁰ Bronstein is separately accused of creating “Ric Flair Drip Inc.” and tricking Flair into signing away his intellectual property before selling part of the company to Carma while cutting Flair out. Attorneys for Bronstein and Cosby have denied all allegations, calling the complaint “fiction.”²²

Tyson is also a defendant in a separate $1.5 million suit in London’s High Court brought by Medier, a Cyprus-based company that promotes the betting firm Rabona. Medier alleges Tyson wrongfully terminated a January 2024 promotional contract to take the Netflix-sponsored fight against Jake Paul, and seeks the return of more than $800,000 in fees for services it says were never rendered, plus $729,000 in wasted production and promotion costs.²³ Tyson’s legal team says Medier breached first by failing to obtain his required approval of promotional materials.²⁴

Jake Paul’s Threatened Defamation Action

After Jake Paul’s sixth-round knockout loss to Anthony Joshua in December 2025, former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder, promoter Lou DiBella, and commentator Piers Morgan were among those who publicly alleged the fight had been staged or fixed.²⁵ Paul and his business partner Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, said they were sending cease-and-desist letters and threatened defamation lawsuits. Bidarian argued that calling the fights “staged” defames the California State Athletic Commission by implying negligence and federal crimes.²⁶ As of mid-2026, no formal suit has been filed. Both Paul and Joshua have denied any arrangement to predetermine the outcome.²⁷

1
The New York Times/The Athletic. Zuffa Boxing Dana White Turki Al Sheikh
2
Yahoo Sports. Zuffa Boxing Inks Multi-Year Broadcast Deal With Paramount
3
SI/FanNation. Frank Warren Set To Battle Sela and TKO Group in 1 Billion Legal Battle
4
The New York Times/The Athletic. Frank Warren Dana White Sela Lawsuit
5
Yahoo Sports. Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing Hit With Lawsuit From Boxxer Over Alleged Unlawful Contractual Interference
6
Boxing Scene. Ben Shalom Accuses Zuffa Boxing of Scandalous Conduct in Contract Dispute
7
Fortune. Boxing Don King Billion Fraud Rumble in the Jungle Ali Foreman Nigeria
8
NBC News. Don King Sued Promoter Seeking 3 Billion Alleged Rumble Jungle Anniversary
9
New York Post. Top Rank Boxing President Hid Deal With Alleged Drug Gang Leader From ESPN Lawsuit
10
U.S. Department of the Treasury. Treasury Sanctions Kinahan Organized Crime Group
11
Times of India. Top Rank Boxing President Todd duBoef Sued for Alleged Withholding of Millions Organized Crime Links Involving Daniel Kinahan
12
CNN. Daniel Kinahan US Department of State Reward Boxing
13
CourtListener. William Keane v. Top Rank Inc.
14
New York Post. Floyd Mayweather Sues Notorious NYC Money Manager in Alleged 175M Fraud Scheme
15
Politico. Rechnitz Sentenced to 5 Months in Prison
16
The Real Deal. Floyd Mayweather Jr. Sues Jona Rechnitz
17
ESPN. Fanmio Platform Suing Boxer Ryan Garcia Promoter Golden Boy
18
Sportico. Ryan Garcia Golden Boy Lawsuit
19
Justia. Fanmio Inc. v. Ryan Garcia et al.
20
MJBizDaily. Mike Tyson Ric Flair Accuse Partners in Celebrity Cannabis Branding Effort of Fraud
21
New York Post. Mike Tyson Ric Flair Sue Cannabis Company for 50 Million for Alleged Embezzlement Scheme
22
Ganjapreneur. Mike Tyson Sues Former Executives of Cannabis Brand Parent Company for 50M
23
Times of India. Mike Tyson Sued for 1.5 Million After Alleged Contract Breach Before Jake Paul Fight
24
Spectrum Local News. Tyson Faces 1.5 Million Lawsuit Over Alleged Contract Violation
25
Yahoo Sports. Jake Paul Pursuing Legal Action Against Critics Claiming Anthony Joshua Fight Was Rigged
26
Fox News. Jake Paul’s Boxing Promotion Pursuing Legal Action Against Critics Claiming Fights Staged
27
USA Today/MMA Junkie. Jake Paul vs. Anthony Joshua Fixed Legal Action