![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/681159d12d53791d39b1a504a2211ee0.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAlmost eight years after retiring from professional boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is climbing into the legal right today to take on Paramount-owned Showtime over \u201chundreds of millions of dollars in the misappropriated funds and damages resulting from a long-running and elaborate scheme of financial fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Estimated to have close to a billion bucks over his 21-year pro career, the undefeated boxer wants over \u201c$340,000,000\u201d in damages from the premium cable network, a fraud and unjust enrichment lawsuit filed Tuesday in LA Superior Court says. Also suing Stephen Espinoza, ex-chief of the now shuttered Showtime Sports, Mayweather claims the net still owes him around $20 million from his 2015 welterweight championship fight against Andre Berto.<\/p>\n
More from Deadline<\/p>\n
Basically Mayweather and his attorney say that vast sums of money due the boxer known as \u201cMoney\u201d was knowingly deposited by Espinoza and Showtime into accounts controlled by his ex-manager Al Haymon. Accounts that Mayweather says he knew nothing about and apparently saw little from.<\/p>\n
Oddly enough, while repeatedly citing his former manager and long time advisor (now ex-advisor) Haymon\u00a0as the mastermind of the alleged big bucks scam, the man Tuesday\u2019s filing describes as a \u201cfather figure\u201dto Mayweather is not actually named as a defendant in the 25-page complaint.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Along with cameo appearances by HBO and Vegas\u2019 MGM Grand, what is mentioned in the filing by Costa Mesa attorney Samini Block is the accusation that \u201cover approximately two decades of managing Mayweather, Haymon engaged in a pattern of financial manipulation and self-dealing behind Mayweather\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, in a world where most sports have an shady underbelly and the fixes are often in one way or another, no one is every going to tell you that boxing of all competitions n an avarice or sticky fingers free zone. Certainly, as too many prizefighters like the now 48-year-old and occasional exhibition\u00a0bout fighting Floyd Mayweather Jr. have learned the hard way, not paying attention to the money and the purse has consequences above and beyond the fine print in or out of your prime.<\/p>\n
To that, Tuesday\u2019s complaint also notes that when \u201cMayweather\u2019s new team\u201d went to Showtime in 2024 for documents and accounting related to the big ticket pay-per-view Manny Pacquiao fight of 2015 or the much watched PPV 2017 dust-up with MMA star Conor McGregor, they got TKO\u2019d. Mayweather\u2019s Richard Schaefer-led reps were informed by Haymon and Showtime that the materials they sought were \u201clost in a flood\u201d or \u201cstored off-site and not readily accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a361bbed6774067cd7005e8564173bdf.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
All of which adds up to, according to the complaint (with some sarcasm about said flood), tainting the notoriously livin\u2019 large and 50-0 record holding Mayweather with \u201c(false) rumors that he was \u2018broke’\u201d and led to \u201creputational harm and mental anguish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s complaint postulates that Stephen Espinoza, who left Showtime almost three years ago once the plug was pulled on the Sports division by the pre-David Ellison regime, is working with the very Al Haymon. The continuing connection between the ex-Ziffren Brittenham attorney and the little seen or heard from manager he allegedly aided while at Showtime in siphoning\u00a0off cash from Floyd Mayweather makes for a great added twist to the tale. However, Deadline cannot verify the validity of that information or the duo\u2019s ongoing professional relationship at Premier Boxing Champions or otherwise.<\/p>\n
Responding to Deadline\u2019s request for comment on Mayweather\u2019s suit and its allegations, a spokesperson for Showtime\u2019s parent company Paramount said late Tuesday: \u201cThese baseless claims lack legal or factual merit. We strongly reject them and will respond accordingly through the court process.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s on. Get your tickets and ringside seats now.<\/p>\n
Best of Deadline<\/p>\n
Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost eight years after retiring from professional boxing, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is climbing into the legal right today…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[56386,703,49,48,30209,19702,82,186145],"class_list":["post-452766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-al-haymon","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-floyd-mayweather","tag-showtime","tag-sports","tag-stephen-espinoza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}