Pacquiao camp downplays Paradigm Sports' $3.3M lawsuit
MANILA, Philippines – A lawyer representing Manny Pacquiao in the United States brushed off a lawsuit filed against the Filipino icon by Paradigm Sports, which seeks monetary damages after alleging that Pacquiao breached an earlier agreement with them regarding a fight with Mikey Garcia.
In a statement, lawyer Dale Kinsella of Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump LLP said Paradigm Sports — a sports management agency that also represents UFC star Conor McGregor — is just trying to get in the way of Pacquiao’s scheduled bout with WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. this August.
“The complaint filed by Paradigm Sports in California state court on Friday is a frivolous effort to interfere with Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming mega-fight, and it can and will fail for numerous reasons,” Kinsella said in a statement disseminated to the media on Sunday by Pacquiao’s US publicist Fred Sternburg.
According to a report by The Athletic's Lance Pugmire published Sunday, sports manager Audie Attar of Paradigm is seeking damages that include a $3.3 million advance that it claims Pacquiao received when he signed with the agency in February 2020.
Paradigm claims Pacquiao breached his agreement with them as they were reportedly “under the impression Pacquiao was about to sign a deal with Garcia” — a fight Paradigm said it had negotiated.
For some reason, the Garcia fight — which would likely have been held somewhere in the Middle East — did not materialize, and Pacquiao ended up making the surprise move to take on the undefeated Spence on August 21 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (August 22, Manila time).
According to Pugmire’s report, Paradigm has requested an injunction to prevent Pacquiao-Spence bout from taking place.
But Kinsella claimed it was Paradigm who failed to meet its contractual obligations to Pacquiao, and that the fighting senator regrets associating himself with them.
“Moreover, had Manny Pacquiao known that Paradigm Sports appears to have had no intention of fulfilling its contractual obligations, he never would have entered into any relationship with them,” Kinsella continued.
Pacquiao entered into a deal with Paradigm with hopes of arranging a boxing match against McGregor. But the mixed martial arts star’s loss to Dustin Porier at UFC 257 quashed hopes for a Pacquiao-McGregor showdown.
Instead, McGregor is headed to a rubber match with Porier at UFC 264 on July 10. Aside from Mikey Garcia, rising star Ryan Garcia and welterweight titleholder Terence Crawford were also in the conversation as the next opponent for Pacquiao, who hasn’t fought since defeating Keith Thurman in July 2019.
Pacquiao, for his part, is now training for Spence and has no plan to turn back.
“Should this matter actually proceed beyond Friday’s filing in a court of law, Mr. Pacquiao will vigorously defend this action, assert his own claims against Paradigm Sports, and seek to recover his attorney’s fees as well,” Kinsella said.
- Latest
- Trending
