Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao can’t be sued for a disappointing boxing performance.
According to a federal judge in Los Angeles, ticket buyers and pay-per-view watchers of the fighters’ May 2015 bout in Las Vegas, in which Pacquiao fought with an injured shoulder, got what they paid for: a boxing match.
The judge threw out dozens of lawsuits last week against the two boxers and Time Warner Inc.’s HBO over the quality of the fight, saying viewers weren’t guaranteed a battled that lived up to the pre-fight hype. The ruling came a day before Mayweather kept his undefeated record on the line against mixed martial arts’ biggest star, Conor McGregor (see p19).
“The reason that competitive sports is so compelling is precisely because the outcome is always at least somewhat uncertain,” U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner wrote in his decision. “Competitive strategies are ever-changing, and the quality of performance at any given event is consistently unpredictable.”
The boxers, the fight’s promoters and HBO were sued by viewers who paid as much as USD99.95 to watch it on television. The plaintiffs claimed they were cheated because the promoters concealed Pacquiao’s injury. Pacquiao lost the fight in a 12-round decision and later revealed he suffered a torn rotator cuff in his shoulder during training.
Although there were many empty seats amid the crowd of 14,623, yesterday’s bout was expected to surpass the record earnings from Mayweather’s fight against Pacquiao. That fight generated more than $600 million in revenue from a combination of pay-
per view purchases, ticket sales, sponsorships and merchandise. Edvard Pettersson, MDT/Bloomberg
