The producer of two upcoming Floyd Mayweather fights filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday, suing the star boxer for breach of contract while also attempting to stop his June 27 fight against Mike Zambidis in Greece, according to court records.
CSI Sports Events alleges in the lawsuit that Mayweather breached his contract with the company when he agreed to fight Zambidis. CSI was contracted to produce Mayweather's exhibition fight against Mike Tyson and his professional bout against Manny Pacquiao later this year.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, asked the court to place a permanent injunction on Mayweather's fight against Zambidis because it breaches Mayweather's CSI deal. CSI filed an emergency injunction application in federal court to try to stop the fight.
The plaintiffs' attorney stressed in the filed emergency injunction the reason for the temporary restraining order is due to Mayweather's fight in Greece next weekend. The injunction claimed Mayweather was scheduled to leave for the fight Friday.
A hearing on the application for the temporary restraining order is scheduled for Monday afternoon.
The application also indicated some difficulty locating a current attorney for Mayweather and sent notice of the application to the attorney who filed a termination notice on Mayweather's behalf earlier in June. That attorney said he was not currently representing Mayweather in the matter but may end up doing so.
CSI is asking for $6.65 million in restitution from Mayweather and Frist Apex Ventures, the co-defendant in the case that CSI said acted as Mayweather's representative.
Messages left with Mayweather's representation were not immediately returned to ESPN.
The lawsuit claims that CSI and Frist Apex agreed to a deal on Aug. 10 for a Tyson-Mayweather fight that would take place in the spring of 2026. The suit claims Frist Apex had the authority to enter the deal on Mayweather's behalf. In a separate civil case, Mayweather is suing Frist Apex for aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty.
The CSI lawsuit claims it agreed to pay Mayweather $14 million to fight Tyson, including a $2 million advance. According to the suit, the parties signed a separate exclusive agreement in November for his next fight after Tyson, where Mayweather would receive $35 million if Pacquiao was the opponent and 20% of any pay-per-view revenue. If the fight wasn't on pay-per-view, Mayweather would receive "a $50 million buyout." If Pacquiao were unavailable, Mayweather would fight a different opponent for $20 million, along with other bonuses.
The lawsuit alleges that Mayweather refused to make a social media announcement of his return to boxing in November -- through his then-business manager, Jona Rechnitz -- because "he was in the process of selling those very same rights to a third party."
CSI claims Mayweather entered into an agreement in December with another company, EverWonder, for the Pacquiao fight on Netflix for $24.75 million, including a $2.75 million advance and the potential for a $3.75 million bonus.
CSI and EverWonder then began working out a solution to the potential Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, according to the lawsuit.
"We were prepared to go forward," Burstein said. "Tyson would go first, and CSI would allow, Pacquiao was going to go forward in the fall in the Sphere televised by Netflix with CSI getting full billing rights."
As part of CSI's deal with EverWonder, Frist Apex needed to repay an advance and Mayweather agreed to give CSI exclusive rights to the fight after Pacquiao, Burstein said. Frist Apex never repaid the advance, Burstein said.
As the EverWonder negotiations took place, the lawsuit claims CSI learned about a third fight agreement for Mayweather-Zambidis. The suit claims the Zambidis fight "would violate" CSI's exclusive rights with Mayweather.
The lawsuit claims Mayweather then changed business managers from Rechnitz to Walter Jordon and that Jordon told CSI the Tyson fight would occur before the Zambidis fight. Mayweather went through medical testing for the Tyson fight, according to the suit, and asked for $150,000 in cash, which Burstein said CSI paid and that Mayweather signed the receipt.
The following day, the suit alleges, Mayweather announced he was fighting Zambidis despite CSI not agreeing to let that fight occur, Burstein said. In May, Tyson announced that he injured his hand and the scheduled May 30 fight needed to be postponed. The contract allowed for a six-month timeframe to reschedule the Tyson fight before an interim fight would be allowed. This also made the Zambidis bout Mayweather's return fight, which would allegedly violate agreements with CSI.
The lawsuit claims Mayweather attempted to terminate his contract with CSI on June 9 after he allegedly had breached his contract.
The CSI lawsuit is the latest in a litany of legal issues for Mayweather. He faces two felony charges for allegedly writing a bad check for a $200,000 watch in Las Vegas and has civil suits against him in four states with varying allegations, including nonpayment for goods and services. He also has a $7.2 million IRS lien against him for unpaid taxes.
As a plaintiff, Mayweather is suing Showtime, which used to televise his fights, for $340 million along with the suit against Rechnitz and Fritz Apex for $175 million, alleging fraud and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty in both cases.