JAKE PAUL is being sued by Eddie Hearn for damages in “excess of £92MILLION” after claiming the promoter “paid” a judge to score fights in favour of his fighters.
The YouTuber-turned-boxer accused Hearn of having American judge Glenn Feldman on the Matchroom Boxing payroll following his scoring of Katie Taylor and Anthony Joshua’s respective clashes with Amanda Serrano and Oleksandr Usyk.
And the allegation has prompted Hearn to take legal action against the social media superstar.
Matchroom have sued the younger Paul brother for making an “outrageously false and baseless allegation” that has damaged their reputation.
Hearn is suing The Problem Child for defamation and damages upwards of £92m ($100m) for the “outlandishly false” accusation made in an interview earlier this month.
Matchroom Attorney Frank Salzano said: “Both legally and ethically there is a clear line separating opinion from defamatory lies.
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“Jake Paul knows that, and he purposely crossed that line when he wrongly accused Matchroom Boxing and Eddie Hearn of fixing fights.
“Nonetheless he was still given an opportunity to retract his defamatory statements and refused to.
“Now he will face the legal consequences of his actions as Matchroom and Mr. Hearn will be seeking damages in well excess of $100 million given the value and goodwill attached to the Matchroom business and the harmful nature of Mr. Paul’s comments.”
Paul, 25, has found himself in legal hot water for saying: “Glenn Feldman shows up in Saudi and scores Anthony Joshua to win the fight when everyone who watched the fight said it was not a split decision.
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“Clearly, this guy is getting paid money by Matchroom Boxing.”
Former Disney star Paul was quick to acknowledge the gravity of the accusation he levelled at British boxing supremo Hearn.
He said” [It’s] a bold statement and an accusation that I don’t take likely, but it’s just blatantly obvious. And they’re not even trying to hide it.”
Video footage of Paul’s allegation was also submitted by Matchroom lawyer Salzano.
Hearn, 43, revealed earlier this week that he was planning to take legal action against Paul for his comments.
He said: “What he said in terms of his allegations of corruption with Glen Feldman is totally unacceptable.
“We all have a laugh with Jake and he’s an average fighter but I’m telling you now, what he said is unacceptable and it will be dealt with because we take this sport, our values as a family seriously and we love the sport of boxing.
“So, for him to come out with idiotic comments without even thinking of what he said is extremely harmful to me and very disrespectful to us as a business and as a family.”
He added: “Jake’s comments will be dealt with appropriately.
“I’m not prepared, as I would be on many occasions, to take what he is saying with a pinch of salt on this occasion because it’s bang out of order and totally disrespectful to the sport of boxing and to me and us.
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“I take it extremely personally because they’re questioning our credentials, they are questioning our integrity and I won’t have it.
“So, he’s going to have to take the brunt of that. Maybe he doesn’t care, but I do.”
SunSport has contacted Jake Paul’s representatives for comment.
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Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
