Mike Tyson faces $1.59M lawsuit for breaking gambling deal to fight Jake Paul after $700M Saudi offer
LONDON, ENGLAND: Mike Tyson staged a professional boxing comeback in November, facing off against YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul at AT&T Stadium in Texas. Despite raking in an estimated $20 million, the boxing icon is now confronted with circumstances that could see him forfeiting a part of his earnings.
Tyson is facing a lawsuit in a London court after being accused of breaching a contract to promote a gambling company, with claims amounting to almost $1.6 million following his agreement to fight Paul.
Medier files lawsuit against Mike Tyson and Tyrannic for alleged breach of contract
The lawsuit against Mike Tyson and his company Tyrannic comes after Turki Alalshikh, the head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, offered Mike Tyson a staggering $700 million to fight Jake Paul in a “real fight,” according to reports.
Medier, a company registered in Cyprus that promotes the online casino and betting company Rabona, is filing a lawsuit against the former heavyweight champion and his company, Tyrannic, for allegedly backing out of a deal agreed upon in January to fight Jake Paul, as reported by ESPN.
"The true reason for Mr Tyson and Tyrannic's hasty and unlawful termination was because Mr Tyson had agreed a deal, sponsored by Netflix, to fight the influencer Jake Paul," the company's attorney stated in the documents released to the public on Friday, December 6.
In response to the lawsuit, Tyson's representatives issued a statement to the New York Post, "It is the company’s position that Medier, Ltd materially breached the terms of its license agreement on multiple occasions and in various ways."
The statement further read, "As such, Tyrannic, LLC was well within its legal and contractual rights to terminate the license agreement for material breach in an effort to mitigate additional reputational harm to the Tyson brand."
Medier’s lawsuit follows class action against Netflix over poor streaming quality
Medier's lawsuit is the most recent related to the November 15 event, which attracted 108 million viewers globally.
Ronald "Blue" Denton, a man from Florida, has initiated a class-action lawsuit against Netflix following the fight, citing the subpar streaming quality that impacted millions during the highly-watched boxing match and is seeking damages of no less than $50 million.
Questions arose regarding the fight's authenticity after Paul, aged 27, defeated the 58-year-old Tyson in an eight-round event that lacked excitement. Subsequent comments by the victor led a sports attorney to believe that legal action might ensue.
“It wouldn’t shock me one bit to see a lawsuit filed on this fight,” Dan Lust, a sports attorney with Moritt Hock & Hamroff and a Law Professor at New York Law School, told the New York Post.
