By Marisa Kendall, From The Recorder

SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers with O’Melveny & Myers are going after one of boxing’s biggest behind-the-scenes names, accusing him of illegally trying to take over the industry.

Alan Haymon, who manages legendary boxer Floyd Mayweather and helped orchestrate his May fight with Manny Pacquiao, wants to control nearly every major professional boxer competing in the U.S., according to the lawyers. They accuse Haymon of buying up airtime for his fights through an illegal “payola” scheme, booking prime venues and then canceling just so competitors can’t use them, and forcing his boxers to reject deals from other promoters. The intent is to squeeze competing promoters out of the industry—”law, fair competition, and fighters’ rights be damned,” the lawyers wrote.

A team led by O’Melveny partner Daniel Petrocelli sued Haymon on Wednesday in the Central District of California for violations of federal antitrust law and the Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act. Petrocelli’s team represents Top Rank Inc., a competing Nevada boxing promoter.

In May, Haymon was hit with a similar suit in the Central District of California, filed by Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger.

Haymon’s lawyers at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel brushed aside Wednesday’s suit as “entirely without merit.” In a written statement, they called the litigation “a cynical attempt by boxing’s old guard to use the courts to undermine the accessibility, credibility and exposure of boxing that the sport so desperately needs.”

Haymon started out as a music promoter, working with artists including M.C. Hammer and Whitney Houston. In January he launched the Premier Boxing Champions series for TV. The O’Melveny lawyers claim Haymon has bought airtime for his fights on half a dozen major broadcasters for more than 100 show dates, “leaving no room, no dates, and no opportunities for other promoters and other fighters.”

The deals, which the lawyers call a “payola” scheme, reverse the ordinary flow of money—typically broadcasters pay the promoter to air a fight. The lawyers liken the scheme to deals between record companies and radio stations that prompted complaints from the Federal Trade Commission in the 1950s and 1960s, and were ultimately banned.

The complaint alleges Haymon’s deals have been bankrolled by financial firm Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., also named as a defendant. A Waddell spokesman declined to comment on the litigation.

This isn’t O’Melveny’s first foray into boxing—the firm successfully defended Pacquiao in a 2010 breach-of-contract suit filed by a Texas-based promotions company.

The O’Melveny lawyers claim Haymon isn’t even allowed to be promoting fights under the Muhammad Ali Boxing Act, which bars boxing managers from doubling as promoters.

The lawyers contend Haymon has forced boxers under his control to forgo large paydays just to hurt competing promoters. “Because Haymon has a dominant position in the managerial market,” the lawyers wrote, “he can effectively block huge numbers of boxers—including much of the sport’s top talent—from contracting with legitimate promoters, as they would normally do, or from competing with boxers who are contracted with legitimate promoters.”

IMAGE: Daniel Petrocelli, O’Melveny & Myers partner

For more on this story go to: http://www.therecorder.com/id=1202731151997/OMelveny-Throws-Punch-in-Fight-for-Control-of-Boxing#ixzz3ekM9UbDh