Las Vegas-Based Top Rank Boxing Hit With Lawsuit From Crawford
By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford has filed a scathing breach of contract lawsuit against his former promoter, Las Vegas-based Top Rank Boxing. The alleged damages amount to at least $5.4 million that he claims he lost due to Top Rank founder Bob Arum’s and the promotion’s failure to deliver a second fight in year two of the contract extension he signed in 2018.
The filing included additional damages that could render a judgment high as $10 million.
The crux of the lawsuit is Crawford’s claim that he was owed one more fight on his final contract with Top Rank and the promotion’s failure to deliver a $900,000 bonus if he was not offered a fight against Errol Spence by the end of 2020. That event never emerged and created additional acrimony in the untenable business marriage.
The structure of the complaint comes down to a significant contractual dispute. The 23-page document lays out one count each of Fraudulent Misrepresentation, Negligent Misrepresentation, Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith, and Fair Dealing and Tortious Breach of the Implied Covenant of Good Faith. The suit also names Bob Arum’s step-son and current Top Rank president, Todd DuBoef.
The Nebraska native signed with Top Rank in 2011 and won titles in three weight classes on his way to becoming ESPN’s current No. 1 welterweight and No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer. His claim also gets highly personal and is loaded with accusations of racist behavior which Crawford says stifled his earnings while signed with Top Rank. Crawford alleges “Arum’s sordid history with athletes of color, especially Black fighters, and his bias favoring white and Latino fighters is well-documented and known throughout the boxing world” and that “Arum makes no secret of his deep-seated bias against Black fighters.”
The split wasn’t at all unexpected. After his fifth successful title defense against Shawn Porter in December 2021, the 34-year-old fighter told reporters, “I’m pretty sure my decision is made already. Bob couldn’t secure me the Spence fight when I was with him, so how is he gonna secure me the Spence fight when I’m not with him? I’m moving forward with my career right now and I wish everybody the best.”
Over the past two years especially, the 90-year-old Arum has made curious comments calling into question not the talent of his fighter, but Crawford’s bankability. “I could build a house in Beverly Hills on the money I lost on him in the last three fights,” Arum said to The Athletic in 2020.
Crawford has hired powerhouse attorney Bryan Freedman who also represented Mariah Carey, Vin Diesel, Julia Roberts, Robert Downey Jr. and a slew of Hollywood super-stars. Freedman also previously represented Mikey Garcia in his 2014 lawsuit against Top Rank, which ended in an out-of-court settlement.
LVSportsBiz.com reached out to Top Rank for comment and received the following response to today’s lawsuit filing by Crawford: “Bud Crawford’s lawsuit against Top Rank is frivolous. His vile accusations of racism are reckless and indefensible. He knows it, and his lawyer knows it. I have spent my entire working life as a champion of Black boxers, Latino boxers, and other boxers of color. I have no doubt the Court will see Crawford’s case for the malicious extortion attempt that it is.”
