Floyd Mayweather files $340M lawsuit against Showtime alleging missing earnings, including Conor McGregor fight

Floyd Mayweather has filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Showtime and former Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza alleging missing earnings from several of his fights for the network including his 2017 showdown against UFC superstar Conor McGregor.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday details Mayweather’s claims where he seeks to “recover hundreds of millions of dollars in misappropriated funds and damages resulting from a long-running and elaborate scheme of financial fraud” — with earnings of at least $340 million and potentially more based on “lost investment growth.”

Mayweather’s lawsuit claims Showtime and Espinoza allegedly “diverted funds intended for Mayweather into accounts controlled by [Al] Haymon,” the retired boxer’s former manager and advisor. Out of the $1.2 billion in earnings Mayweather has made from his fights, the lawsuit alleges at least $340 million is “missing.”

Much of the lawsuit takes aim at Haymon for allegedly engaging in a “pattern of financial manipulation and self-dealing behind Mayweather’s back,” which included “diverting portions of Mayweather’s fight earnings under false pretenses that Haymon then kept or controlled,” as well as routing fight revenues into secret bank accounts and paying himself and associates “large sums from Mayweather’s funds without authorization.”

In order to hide the stolen funds, Haymon allegedly only showed Mayweather partial documentation related to his fights and profits to prevent him from knowing the full amount earned.

In a strange twist, however, Haymon is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit further alleges that when Mayweather’s new representatives led by Richard Shaeffer sought detailed breakdowns of fight revenue, specifically tied to his 2015 fight against Manny Pacquiao and his 2017 fight against McGregor, Showtime was “unable or unwilling” to produce documentation.

Further claims state Haymon allegedly told them that certain documents were “lost due to a flood” while Showtime allegedly stated the files had been moved off site after the Showtime Sports division was downsized (and later eliminated entirely).

Mayweather signed with Showtime in a landmark deal in 2013 after previously working with HBO. He promoted several fights with the network before announcing his retirement following the McGregor fight in 2017.

During his career, Mayweather was one of the most watched and profitable fighters in combat sports history.

The lawsuit filed seeks damages in excess of $340 million as well as “punitive and exemplary damages,” which is requested for “at least equal to the compensatory damages.”