Salita Promotions tweeted that "two of the most avoided heavyweights in the world put it all on the line. Boxer vs Puncher. Otto Wallin vs. Murat Gassiev September 30th live from Turkey." Wallin (25-1) is best known for a competitive loss to current WBC heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, but has not had a major fight since an early 2021 win over Dominic Breazeale. In fairness to Wallin (pictured), he was booked to fight Dillian Whyte later in 2021, but that fell through due to a Whyte injury. Lately, Wallin has been embroiled in a lawsuit with Salita Promotions, so the fact that Salita Promotions tweeted out the news of Wallin-Gassiev would seem to indicate the lawsuit has been resolved. (There were no notices of settlement on the court's docket). Gassiev is a former two-belt cruiserweight champion who showed murderous punching power in the 200-pound division. After losing to Oleksandr Usyk in 2018, he moved up to heavyweight but has only had four fights in the last five years, due to promotional problems and difficulties attracting opponents to Russia.Earlier this year, Gassiev got a good knockout win over previously unbeaten Mike Balogun. 

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JULY 18, 2023: Heavyweight Otto Wallin has filed a lawsuit against Salita Promotions and attorney David Berlin, a former executive director of the New York Athletic Commission. The lawsuit accuses the defendants of violating the Muhammad Ali Act. Berlin is further accused of managerial malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and a conflict of interest for allegedly acting as Wallin’s manager at the same time he represented Salita Promotions in situations where the interests of his two clients were irreconcilably adverse.

The charges are at odds with Berlin's reputation. In 2014, Berlin was appointed to direct the New York Athletic Commission. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Boxing Writers Association of America’s James A. Farley Award for Honesty and Integrity. According to Wallin, Berlin managed Wallin’s career after stepping down from his position with the New York Athletic Commission. There was no written contract between Wallin and Berlin, and New York law requires that boxing management contracts be put in writing, a rule with which Berlin, as a former boxing commissioner, is surely familiar. The lawsuit acknowledges that Berlin obtained a signed waiver in which Wallin agreed to Berlin's representation despite a "potential conflict of interest" but Wallin did not include that document in his legal filings. The promotional contract between Wallin and Salita Promotions was included in the court filing and it lists Zachary Levin, not Berlin, as Wallin’s representative. It is known that Levin and Berlin also had a professional relationship.

Berlin is accused of “steering” Wallin to Salita Promotions in 2019 “rather than fulfilling his fiduciary responsibilities” to “canvass promoters and determine if they had an interest in signing” Wallin. When the 2019 contract expired last month, Wallin received an offer from Top Rank that included Wallin’s fights being televised on ESPN. The complaint does not say whether it was Berlin or someone else who reached out to Top Rank for the offer.

Salita Promotion’s contract allegedly gave it the right to match Top Rank’s offer, and Salita agreed to match it. However, Wallin contends that the offer could not be matched because Top Rank has exclusive rights to air fights on ESPN. But Berlin wrote a cease and desist letter to Top Rank on behalf of Salita Promotions, allegedly causing Top Rank to withdraw the offer to Salita. This, according to the complaint, is a violation of the Muhammad Ali Act’s firewall provision designed to prevent collusion between a boxer’s manager and promoter.

Salita Promotions was also sued for providing less than the minimum number of bouts to which Wallin was entitled.