On Friday, CSI Entertainment and some related business entities asked a federal court in New York’s Southern District to issue a preliminary injunction barring Floyd Mayweather from fighting kickboxer Mike Zambidis in an exhibition fight in Athens this Saturday (June 27th). A hearing was originally scheduled to take place in New York today (Monday) but was moved to Wednesday, leaving precious little time for a court to act prior to Saturday. CSI, represented by high-powered boxing attorney Judd Burstein, also asked the court to prohibit Mayweather from “taking any steps in furtherance of the Zambidis fight, prohibiting Mayweather from fighting anyone else other than Mike Tyson before he honors his obligation to fight Tyson as his next fight in an event broadcast by CSI; and preventing Mayweather from fighting anyone other than Manny Pacquiao or a fighter acceptable to CSI as his next fight immediately after Tyson in a bout to be broadcast by CSI Entertainment Events.
According to the legal papers submitted by CSI:
In 1997, Richard and Craig Miele founded the CSI Sports business, which is operated through a number of entities using the Fight Sports CSI brands. Mayweather is an undefeated boxing legend and widely regarded as one of the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in the sport’s history. Mayweather retired in 2017 with a 50-0 record.
On August 10, 2025, CSI secured the exclusive rights to the services of Mayweather to fight Tyson in the spring of 2026. Obtaining exclusivity rights to premiere fighters is a crucial industry practice that was used extensively by HBO and ESPN at times when they were the leading names in broadcast boxing. Securing exclusive rights enables a sports company to become a destination for viewers seeking premium content and to strengthen its reputation with a global audience, both of which are essential to building the business and its brand. Obtaining exclusive broadcast rights for the Tyson fight was especially impactful for CSI and its brands. The fight will be a major event featuring two of boxing’s biggest stars. The announcement of the Tyson Fight received extraordinary media attention, surpassing nearly all other recent sports announcements. The resulting publicity and reputational benefit to CSI cannot be underestimated. This is especially so because in reliance on the Mayweather exclusive agreements, CSI / Fight Sports is launching a sports network in the USA with the Mayweather vs. Tyson fight on the most widely distributed platforms in the country.
If the exclusive rights CSI announced with Mayweather were put into question, it would likely terminate any and all plans by the platforms to carry/distribute the CSI / Fight Sports network and the harm to CSI would be terminable and non-reversible. At Mayweather’s direction, CSI Sports Events contracted with Frist for Mayweather’s services and Mayweather signed an inducement letter agreeing to the terms. This is standard industry practice. On August 11, 2025, CSI Sports Events paid a $2 million advance to Frist on Mayweather’s behalf. This was just an advance as Mayweather, through Frist, was entitled to $14 million in total compensation under the Tyson Agreement. On November 6, 2025, CSI secured the rights to Mayweather’s next fight after Tyson to be against Pacquiao, or another suitable opponent, under an exclusive fight agreement, which expressly provides that a loss of these rights would give rise to irreparable harm.
A Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would be even more significant than Mayweather-Tyson because Mayweather and Pacquiao are two of the greatest fighters in boxing history and they competed in similar weight classes. Even more importantly, it will be a rematch of their 2015 bout which Mayweather won by unanimous decision and, because it will be a twelve-round professional fight, Mayweather’s undefeated 50-0 record will be on the line.
On November 6, 2025, CSI Sports Events paid a $2.5 million advance to Frist on Mayweather’s behalf. Again, this was just an advance. Mayweather stood to earn $50 million or more under the exclusive fight agreement.
On December 12, 2025, less than a month after CSI paid Frist $2.5 million, Mayweather surreptitiously signed a contract with third parties “Everwonder.” The Everwonder contract contemplated that Mayweather would fight Pacquiao on Netflix, in violation of CSI Entertainment Events’ exclusive rights. Under the Everwonder contract, Mayweather received a $2,750,000 advance in connection with a proposed Pacquiao fight to take place in the Fall of 2026. However, just one month earlier, on November 6, 2025, CSI Entertainment Events had paid Mayweather, through Frist, a $2.5 million advance for a fight against Pacquiao or another suitable opponent – i.e., the exact same fight. On information and belief, Mayweather then proceeded, through Frist, to take an additional $5.8 million advance from a third party lender against the Everwonder contract.
On January 7th, CSI learned about the Everwonder contract. Rather than sue Mayweather immediately, Plaintiffs sent Everwonder a cease-and-desist notice and engaged in negotiations with Mayweather’s representative seeking to preserve the extraordinarily valuable relationship. In connection with those discussions, Mayweather approved a press release which attributed the following quote to Mayweather: “I still have what it takes to set more records in the sport of boxing – from my upcoming Mike Tyson event to my next professional fight afterwards – no one will generate a bigger gate, have a larger global broadcast audience and generate more money with each event – than my events. And I plan to keep doing it with my global media partner, CSI Sports / Fight Sports.”
After the press release, CSI then entered into a series of related agreements with Mayweather, Frist, and Everwonder. On February 22nd, CSI Sports Events, Mayweather, and Frist signed an amendment to the Tyson Agreement that extended the date by when the Tyson fight had to proceed (absent an injury extension) from April 25, 2026, to May 31, 2026. CSI also gave up certain rights in connection with the Pacquiao Fight, while retaining other valuable rights and receiving new rights. Most importantly, CSI was granted exclusive rights to Mayweather’s next fight immediately after the Pacquiao Fight. It did not have those rights before.
[CSI alleges that through this amendment process,] Mayweather was now contracted to fight Pacquiao on September 19th, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight would be Mayweather’s next fight after the Tyson Fight, and Mayweather would not participate in any intervening fights before the Tyson Fight, or after the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight and before Mayweather’s next fight, to be broadcast by CSI Entertainment Events.
CSI’s agreement to this plan was also premised on receiving the same logo credits, signage, and public announcements afforded to Mayweather’s and Pacquiao’s promotional companies in connection with a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight – as televised worldwide on Netflix On March 1st, CSI paid a $150,000 installment that was due because Mayweather had completed his medicals for the fight. On March 2nd, the very day after he accepted the $150,000 installment payment, Mayweather posted on his Instagram account that he would be fighting Zambidis in Greece on June 27th. The proposed Zambidis Fight was a breach of the bar against interim fights under. Indeed, Mayweather breached merely by posting about it. In response, CSI retained counsel in Greece to take steps to prevent the Zambidis fight from going forward.
CSI says it later came to the understanding that Mayweather had backed down on the Zambidis fight. However, on May 7th, Mayweather held a press conference where he made it clear that he did, in fact, intend to go ahead with the Zambidis fight on June 27th. Meanwhile, Tyson had injured his hand and would be unable to fight on May 30th, but would be available to fight within the next six months and that consequently the Tyson agreement was effectively tolled, meaning that Mayweather was barred from participating in any other bout.
On June 16th, DAZN and CSI reached an agreement in principle that DAZN would not broadcast the Zambidis Fight and DAZN removed the Zambidis fight offering, poster, and marketing from its platform.
