By Celia Ampel, From Daily Business Review

Boxing promoter Don King and junior middleweight boxer Ricardo Mayorga are ready for a second round.

Deerfield Beach-based Don King Promotions Inc. is asking a federal judge in Miami to stop a scheduled Mayorga bout because it allegedly violates the boxer’s exclusive promotional agreement with King’s company. It’s the second injunction King has sought against Mayorga for unauthorized fights.

The lawsuit filed Thursday seeks to cancel an Aug. 29 match between Mayorga and “Sugar” Shane Mosley, a former three-division world champion. Along with Mosley, and Mayorga, Sugar Shane Mosley Promotions Inc. and GoBox Promotions Inc. are defendants in the suit.

King, best known for promoting “The Thrilla in Manila” match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975, is both colorful and litigious.

King’s company successfully preempted a previous Mayorga fight with a last-minute injunction granted on a Saturday in May 2010. That time, King fulfilled a bond requirement by racing to the courthouse with a duffel bag filled with $1 million in cash, according to his lawyer Alejandro Brito.

The new lawsuit hinges on the issue of whether a contract Mayorga signed in 2009 with Don King Promotions has been properly renewed and is enforceable. King’s lawsuit said Mayorga, 41, retired from boxing before the end of the three-year contract.

Brito, who filed the lawsuit along with his colleague Roberto Zarco of Zarco Einhorn Salkowski & Brito in Miami, said Mayorga reached out to King in 2014 when he wanted to return to professional boxing. Mayorga won a technical knockout against Allen Medina last September.

“He wanted to extend the term of the contract and signed two agreements to that end, which were the memorandum of understanding as well as an addendum to the promotional contract,” both included in the lawsuit, Brito said.

The renewed contract is a “multi-year agreement,” but it’s unclear when it ends, he added.

“There may be some issue as to how long it’s going to last,” Brito said.

Mosley’s attorney, Kimberlina McKinney, is crying foul. The Beverly Hills, California, lawyer with Kimberlina Law & Consulting said there are discrepancies between Mayorga’s signature on the 2014 documents and his signature on the promotional agreement with Mosley’s companies.

“It’s our opinion that the signatures don’t match,” she said. “And the commission number for the notary doesn’t check out.”

She said King is trying to stop the fight “with a fraudulent document, that is abhorrent. My client will seek damages to the fullest extent.”

Ivaylo Gotzev, a Mayorga representative, said Friday he had no comment.

Brito said King’s attorneys’ only goal at this point is to stop the Mayorga-Mosley fight set for the Forum in Inglewood, California.

“If that occurs, I don’t know at this point what other damages that we would be seeking,” said Brito. “But in the event that the injunction were to be denied, then we clearly would be seeking monetary damages arising from his participation in the event.”

IMAGES:
Don King Brynn Anderson/AP
Ricardo Mayorga Mark Lennihan/AP

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