According to Dan Rafael of espn.com a big legal war is brewing between Top Rank of Sampson Boxing over the promotional rights to WBC Super Middleweight champion David Benavidez.
“We signed him. We want to give him big fights,” Top Rank’s Arum said. “But I don’t really want to talk about it right now because there’s going to be some litigation. [Lewkowicz] believes he’s still under contract and any further questions please contact our lawyers Dan Petrocelli and David Marroso.”
“Bob Arum, Top Rank, everyone involved in this will have a lawsuit,” Sampson Lewkowicz told ESPN. “People believe I am weak or they believe I am naive. But trust me — I am not naive and I am not weak. I never had a problem with Bob Arum before. We had a good relationship but no more. Arum is trying to steal the work I did. With David, I took him from nothing to world champion. But with money you can destroy any contract. It’s so unspeakable what Arum did. It’s a disgrace for an old man to do something like this. It’s savage. I hope he can sleep at night because what he did was totally wrong.
“We sent a cease and desist letter and now I have three lawyers working on the case, working on a lawsuit.”
“Arum is destroying a young man’s career,” Lewkowicz said. “This is a young man, 21 years old, who he refused to sign at the age of 18. After that I did all the work. I work so hard for this kid. I treat him like my son, like every fighter I have. I believe he made a mistake but I still have confidence he will come back home. I will wait for him. He will come back.”
“In April I sent (Benavidez) $50,000 for training expenses for the July 28 fight against Matt Korobov. He took the money and he never signed the bout contract,” Lewkowicz said. “But he cannot fight for Arum. I have a contract with him. It’s very simple. Arum gave him money to sign. I don’t know how much but it must be a lot of money because Bob Arum tried to buy me out for seven figures and I refused. I never accept. I worked so hard why should I give him the fighter?
“David Benavidez is 21, a young kid who doesn’t understand the consequences of signing two contacts with two promoters. He doesn’t understand the law.”
