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Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be retired from professional boxing, but he’s still throwing haymakers.
The champion boxer, who never lost a bout and boasts career earnings of more than $1.1 billion, has hit Business Insider and one of its reporters with a defamation lawsuit that seeks at least $100 million in damages.
The suit, lodged in the Southern District of New York, names Insider Inc. and reporter Daniel Geiger as defendants. It is centered around reporting by Geiger about real estate deals Mayweather Jr. publicly discussed, including an agreement to buy a 62-building Manhattan apartment portfolio. Geiger reported in late March that “there is no evidence there has been a sale.”
According to the lawsuit, Geiger “embarked on a campaign of harassment and defamation, characterized by aggressive and misleading journalism that not only distorts the truth but seems driven by a deep-seated bias against Mr. Mayweather’s success.”
It claims that Geiger “refused” to review documentation proving the deals in question happened, and suggests there’s a racial component to the reporter’s work. It also alleges that Geiger actively sought to “undermine” Mayweather’s business ventures and “humiliate” him publicly.
The suit claims the reporter acted with “actual malice,” which is the high bar required to prove allegations of defamation. It says Mayweather has been adversely affected, including through lost lease opportunities at his buildings, emergency rent-freeze concessions, reputational harm and emotional distress.
Mayweather wants at least $100 million, a public retraction, and a ruling prohibiting the reporter from further public harassment.
A Business Insider spokesperson sent Front Office Sports an emailed statement saying “we will vigorously defend against this meritless attempt to discredit our reporting and smear our reporter.”
Attorneys for Mayweather did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Neither Business Insider nor Mayweather are strangers to the courtroom. Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, sued Business Insider in 2022 for defamation over accusations the publication knowingly published false sexual assault allegations. A Boston federal judge ruled that the suit did not adequately allege defamation, and Portnoy ultimately dropped his appeal of that ruling.
Mayweather, meanwhile, has found himself embroiled in multiple lawsuits related to cryptocurrency promotion. One of those cases, which relates to the EthereumMax crypto token and remains ongoing, has also ensnared a litany of well-known celebrities and athletes, including Kim Kardashian and Paul Pierce.
In 2018, Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled agreed to pay a total of $767,600 to settle charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that they failed to disclose payments received for promoting crypto-related investments. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Mayweather and Khaled did not admit or deny the SEC’s allegations.
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