Josh Gross from SI reporting that "Broward County Circuit Court Judge Marc C. Gold ruled in favor of Don King Productions, granting injunctive relief at 1:20 p.m. ET." I am anxiously awaiting the judge's analysis.
As you may know from my previous posts, I am very surprised that the judge ruled this way given that the contract (which I have posted about before) is an exclusive promotion contract for "professional boxing bouts." I will say, however, that the fact that the judge heard so much testimony yesterday and today did not bode well for Shine and Mayorga because if he agreed with (what I believe is the correct) interpretation of the contract, there would have been no reason to hear so much testimony presumably on irreparable harm. At best for DK, I thought (and think) the contract was ambiguous and that shouldn't net you the emergency injunction.
Also, as I had stated, the fact that DK waited as long as he did to move for the injunction should have cut against him (even though the contract provides that a breach by Mayorga rises to irreparable harm). Nonetheless, according to this article, DK said the following:
"Mayorga is a crazy guy. He’s liable to stick out his chin to show how tough he is – the Joe Palooka syndrome. I’m concerned that the man is going to get hurt, with the kicks and elbows and knees, slamming his head. He’s not training. He was drunk and he called Dana [Jameson, a Don King Productions official] two days ago. This can’t be allowed to happen."
So, putting the contract aside (which the judge obviously can't do when weighing the likelihood of success on the merits -- a key prong to the injunction analysis), maybe the judge was legitimately concerned that Mayorga would be injured going in to the fight unprepared against Thomas, a BJJ blackbelt, and would be unable to fulfill his obligations under the promotion contract.
Again, I am very curious to see the judge's analysis. Specifically, why did he read the word "bouts" broadly enough to prevent any fight when the agreement was clearly discussing exclusivity to engage in "professional boxing bouts" and clearly only covered Mayorga as a professional boxer.
UPDATE
Bizarre continued. Josh Gross is now reporting that Shine will ignore the injunction and proceed as planned. Contempt of court is never the way to go. That said, I think (admittedly I don't practice in North Carolina, don't know how emergency procedures work there, including how easy it is to get a judge on a Saturday, and I don't practice in Florida) that as a practical matter there is very little (or nothing) a state court judge in Florida can do to stop Shine and Mayorga from going forward at this point. The fights are in North Carolina and it is a Saturday (so any tribunal in North Carolina is closed). An order from a state court judge in Florida, by itself, is not going to stop the fight. I guess it could be different if Mayorga was present in Florida right now, but he isn't.
No matter what, I think Shine's lawyer is going to have a bad time in Florida before this judge next week if the fight does go on.
I will continue to follow this and will hopefully see the judge's reasoning.
UPDATE
Josh Gross is reporting that the judge is making DK post a bond and it is a lot of money. This is not surprising. Rule 1.610(B) of the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure provides in part as follows:
Bond. No temporary injunction shall be entered unless a bond is given by the movant in an amount the
court deems proper, conditioned for the payment of costs and damages sustained by the adverse party if
the adverse party is wrongfully enjoined.
So, the Court needs to factor in what Shine and Mayorga stand to lose if ultimately DK does not prevail....wonder what that number will be.
Josh Gross also reporting that judge indicated that failure to obey would result in "severe sanction." The judge probably has a lot of discretion in this regard.
UPDATE
Sherdog is reporting that DK's lawyer stated as follows:
“The court found that Mayorga is not a legitimate mixed martial artist and that Shine was not legitimately promoting him as one for this event,” said Brito, “and that the only reason anyone was attending this ‘Worlds Collide’ event was to see how Mayorga faired as a boxer against an MMA fighter.”
If this is true, it seems strange. I am surprised the judge would make a factual determination concerning whether Mayorga is a "legitimate mixed martial artist." Sure, he is a boxer, but why does that mean that, with training, he can't also compete as an MMA fighter. Is he any less "legitimate" than K-1 fighters who switch over to MMA? No disagreement that Shine was interested in Mayorga because of boxing, but they were not promoting him as a boxer for this fight--it would be one thing if he was fighting Din while wearing boxing gloves. Sounds odd to me.
UPDATE
Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports just told me that the judge entered the injunction (at least in part) because he believed the fans only want to see Mayorga fight because he was a champion boxer and because the title of the promotion is Worlds Collide, apparently referring to a match-up between boxing and pure MMA.
The issue for the court as I see it was whether the language in the agreement prohibiting Mayorga from competing in any "bouts" other than DK promoted professional boxing bouts gave DK the right to stop Mayorga from competing in MMA.
Seems like an end-run around the issue here to rely on (1) why fans want to see the fight; and (2) what Shine chose to call the fight to stop Mayorga from fighting. It would be one thing if Mayorga and Din were boxing--clearly it would have been prohibited--but that is not the case.
UPDATE
According to Kevin Iole, the bond amount is $1,000,000. Here is his article on the ruling. Still appears that the judge is not focusing on the salient issue of whether the bout (as an mma bout) is precluded under the promotion contract. Not sure why he needed testimony about the fact that fans wanted to see the fight because of Mayorga's past success as a boxer or why he needed testimony about the meaning of "Worlds Collide"--Shine would have likely stipulated to that because it doesn't have anything to do with the contractual provision at issue in my opinion.
I think there is clearly a missing link here. It is like saying Brock Lesnar's MMA debut was a "wrestling" bout because the fans wanted to see a wrestler get in the cage and fight MMA?
UPDATE
According to Karyn Bryant via Josh Gross, Mayorga is out tonight and the new headliner is David Heath v Ninja Rua. Sucks for Din Thomas, but the right move to abide by the injunction. Ultimately, I still think they should (and will) get some of that $1,000,000 bond either with Judge Gold or, more likely, on appeal.
I will continue to provide updates -- to the extent there are any.
UPDATE AGAIN
Reports now that the athletic commission in NC just pulled the plug on the entire Shine card. Trying to find out why.
UPDATE
According to Josh Gross, who spoke to Devin Price, CEO of Shine, Price did not have a full understanding of why the card was canceled -- said Shine was prepared to go on without Mayorga fight--and said fighters will be compensated to some extent. Kevin Iole also spoke to Price and confirmed the compensation piece. He will have a piece up shortly on Yahoo!
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