Mike Tyson is going from the boxing ring into court.
The 58-year-old fighter is being sued for roughly $1.6 million for allegedly failing to honor a deal he made with a U.K. gambling company, in order to pursue his November fight against Jake Paul. The news was first reported by Reuters.
The lawsuit was filed at London’s High Court in October, a month before Tyson lost to Paul in a unanimous decision in Dallas. Tyson’s company Tyrannic, is also part of the lawsuit.
Medier, a Cyprus branding agency that promotes online betting firm Rabona, alleges Tyson agreed to the deal worth $2 million in January, then terminated it in March—the same day his fight with Paul was announced. Tyson claims the agency violated its side of the deal by releasing a press release with his name on it to create three promotional websites around him without his approval. Medier said the press release was for an upcoming streaming event that didn’t need Tyson’s approval and the three websites directed users to a website Tyson approved.
In its filing on Oct. 2, Medier argued Tyson’s reasoning to leave the deal wasn’t valid and that his breach led to losses. Medier said Tyson wanted to leave the deal to get out of press events for the company in Amsterdam in July, the same month he was originally supposed to fight Paul. The fight was postponed until November after Tyson had an ulcer.
Tyson and his company have yet to file a response to the case, according to Reuters.
“It is the company’s position that Medier, Ltd. materially breached the terms of its license agreement on multiple occasions and in various ways,” Tyson’s reps said in an email to Front Office Sports. “As such, Tyrannic, LLC was well within its legal and contractual rights to terminate the license agreement for material breach in an effort to mitigate additional reputational harm to the Tyson brand.”
Bird & Bird, the firm representing Tyson and Rabona did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Keystone Law, which is representing Medier, also did not immediately respond.
“The true reason for Mr. Tyson and Tyrannic’s hasty and unlawful termination was because Mr. Tyson had agreed to a deal, sponsored by Netflix, to fight the influencer Jake Paul,” Medier’s lawyers said in the original filing, according to Reuters.
