Webb Sues Warren Over Rights To Danny Williams

By Scott Shaffer

17/08/2004

Webb Sues Warren Over Rights To Danny Williams

Danny Williams' knockout upset of heavyweight golden goose Mike Tyson has spawned transcontinental litigation that will determine the right to promote the future bouts of boxing's new hot property. Chris Webb and his promotional company, Straight-Out Promotions filed a lawsuit in a United States federal court in Kentucky against British promoter Frank Warren and his company, The Sports Network. Boxingtalk has reviewed the complaint, which was filed late last week. In that document, Straight-Out claims that in order to get Warren to produce Williams as an opponent for Tyson, it agreed to pay The Sports Network a total of $350,000, of which $50,000 was due before the July 30, 2004 bout and the remaining $300,000 was due later. But Straight-Out alleges that "literally minutes before the commencement" of the Williams-Tyson bout, one of Warren's representatives arrived at the arena and demanded that the initial $50,000, plus an additional $120,000 be turned over immediately and that Straight-Out also had to sign over the rights to 45% of international broadcast receipts and assume a $30,000 tax liability. If it failed to do that, Straight-Out claims that The Sports Network would have ordered Williams not to enter the ring. Under this alleged coercion, Straight-Out says that it paid the money and signed the necessary documents so that the show could go on. Warren has now been paid more money than he was entitled to, according to the lawsuit. The next week, Warren announced plans for Williams to face Oleg Maskaev without the involvement of Straight-Out. Straight-Out responded by suing, and it has asked the court to declare that it has the option to co-promote Danny Williams' next three fights wherever in the world they are held, and to receive 50% of the promotional profits generated from these three bouts. Straight-Out also seeks an unspecified amount of monetary damages. Boxingtalk will continue to follow this story, but until then... remember where you heard it first! (5PM/ET)