In the days since self-described “fixer” William Keane sued Bob Arum’s Top Rank for breach of contract, fraud and unjust enrichment, the boxing industry has been abuzz by the multitude of revelations that cast the promoter in a damning light through its 36-page complaint.
Keane’s filing provides the most graphic evidence yet detailing Top Rank’s willingness to do business with Ireland’s alleged organized crime leader Daniel Kinahan, identified by the US Treasury Department in 2022 as the mastermind of a “transnational criminal organization”.
Keane alleges in a claim seeking $25million plus interest that the effort illustrates the depth of desperation Top Rank reached to try and please its broadcast partner ESPN, which he claims grew impatient about Top Rank’s ability to bolster its stable of fighters after the parties signed a $90million annual extension to stage fights throughout 2025.
Not only has that deal crumbled, the lawsuit arrives at a time when Top Rank is left exposed without a new broadcast deal in place, and that vulnerability is further compromised by the existence of a new competitor, TKO, the Endeavor Group Holdings-owned company plotting to assemble a boxing league under the direction of the UFC president Dana White.
Keane’s lawsuit is hitched to his allegation that he was shorted by Top Rank president Todd DuBoef for his fees in working to attempt to secure talented fighters for Top Rank, including former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, along with a stable of fighters Kinahan had when he led the management group known as MTK, and even unbeaten former super-middleweight champion David Benavidez – a poaching effort that imploded on Keane and Top Rank.
Contacted by BoxingScene on Tuesday, representatives of Top Rank’s attorney firm, O’Melveny and Myers, said that they plan to vigorously defend Arum’s company from a claim that looks to be as much, if not more, a well-timed smear campaign as a cry for rightful compensation.
“Keane’s allegations are false and his lawsuit is frivolous,” Top Rank’s long-time attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, said.
The essence of Keane’s case is that he alleges DuBoef shorted him, first by altering an agreement they had to pay Keane 10 per cent of purse-money earnings for fighters he would recruit to Top Rank, slashing it to 5 per cent, and then outright not paying Keane at all.
“Keane is informed and believes that DuBoef decided to hoard and conserve Top Rank’s cash, right after ESPN advised him that Top Rank’s $90 million/year ESPN media rights agreement will not be renewed once it expires in August 2025,” the lawsuit alleges.
That point is made on page two of the lawsuit, and is followed by an array of more salacious claims purporting to portray how Top Rank conducts its business.
The lawsuit seeks to have DuBoef paint his stepfather Arum, 93 years old, as “senile” and a figure who “suffered from dementia” and is vulnerable to death – mocking DuBoef as an entitled, arrogant sort.
“It also was hardly a secret in the industry that DuBoef could never fill Arum’s shoes. Arum had been the larger-than-life frontman, master promoter and brains of Top Rank since day one,” the lawsuit claims. “DuBoef did not excel in any of those capacities, especially when it came to signing and promoting big-name fighters. To make matters worse, Arum had expressed to Keane and others that ESPN’s executives did not respect DuBoef. Accordingly, Arum understood that in order to make the 2017 ESPN Agreement work, he needed to find a ‘fixer’ – ie someone capable of managing the ESPN relationship and bringing big-name, championship-caliber fighters to Top Rank. Arum viewed Keane as the perfect fit.”
In another passage, Keane’s lawsuit portrays DuBoef as a toxic leader, untrusting and unimpressed with his entire staff.
“Specifically, DuBoef told Keane that even his COO and vice-president were just ‘worker bees’ who ‘kept the trains running on time,’” the lawsuit claimed in reference to the International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee Brad Jacobs and Top Rank’s veteran fight business executive Carl Moretti.
“DuBoef also told Keane that they were not big thinkers, but rather were ‘low level boxing guys’ who did not understand media and had no comprehension of DuBoef’s concept of ‘awareness equaling currency’.
“He frequently told Keane that he was a ‘hunter’ and they were just ‘farmers’, and said that’s why he was willing to pay Keane so much more. DuBoef further referred to the rest of Top Rank’s employees as ‘monkeys’, who got paid peanuts.”
Keane additionally inserted a story in which an attorney alleged DuBoef is racist against Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, depriving the company of signing some talented fighters.
The inclusion of this material has been deemed excessive and over-the-top by several at Top Rank, who have come to view the lawsuit as a creative strike in the competition for a broadcast deal.
“Someone is out to paint Top Rank as the old way of doing boxing business, that they would behave these ways and were even willing to get in bed with this notorious gangster [Kinahan], while there’s now this new way of doing business where this new company would never do that,” said a boxing industry official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of their business ties to one of the sides.
Keane details in the lawsuit that he was finally stiffed any payment for Fury’s fight in October 2023 in Saudi Arabia, against Francis Ngannou.
If the urgency to collect was so sincere, why did it take nearly 17 months to file this claim loaded with so many other criticisms of Top Rank, a company official questioned.
One of Keane’s most protested claims was contained in a headline from the Daily Mail: “Top Rank exec hid secret deal with alleged crime boss from ESPN and Bob Arum, bombshell lawsuit claims.”
The lawsuit alleges: “Kinahan represented to Keane that he could arrange for Fury to sign with Top Rank on two conditions: (a) Top Rank would have to pay him an agreed percentage of Fury’s fight purses, and (b) Top Rank would have to give MTK (the management company started by Kinahan) an output deal to assure that Kinahan’s other fighters received television exposure.
“When Keane discussed Kinahan’s proposal with DuBoef, DuBoef provided very specific instructions. He authorized Keane to move forward, but he admonished Keane that ESPN could not find out that Kinahan was involved. According to DuBoef, the Irish press had reported that Kinahan was the head of a drug cartel, and if DuBoef were linked to Kinahan, ESPN might be forced to terminate their deal.”
ESPN not knowing Kinahan was involved with the Fury deal and with Top Rank would rank among the all-time cases of heads collectively being stuck in the sand. Fury publicly thanked Kinahan for his involvement with Fury’s two-fight agreement to fight Anthony Joshua, and an ESPN reporter later nominated Kinahan for manager of the year during a Boxing Writers Association of America meeting.
“Nothing was secret,” said Petrocelli, Top Rank’s attorney.
The lawsuit also reflects on the first time DuBoef’s Top Rank and UFC’s White appeared set to compete over the securing of boxing talent.
“In early 2019, DuBoef learned that [White] was planning to
expand his operations into professional boxing. That made DuBoef nervous for many reasons, including because DuBoef feared that UFC’s expansion could interfere with DuBoef’s plans to expand Top Rank’s business,” the lawsuit alleges.
“DuBoef instructed Keane to secure an agreement to make Kinahan Top Rank’s exclusive consultant outside of the United States to help orchestrate Top Rank’s strategic move into foreign territories. Kinahan was willing to assume that role. However, after he and Keane had reached an agreement in principle, Kinahan became upset with DuBoef, who had started to backpedal due to concerns that once Arum found out he would kill the deal.
“DuBoef naturally asked Keane to smooth things over with Kinahan before DuBoef would speak with him directly. DuBoef expressed that having Kinahan’s muscle exclusively backing DuBoef would be a massive advantage when it came to potential competitors and DuBoef’s plans for
European expansion. DuBoef and Kinahan ultimately were able to finalize their deal.
“Concerned Arum would overrule him if he found out, DuBoef decided to pay Kinahan millions of dollars for his exclusivity to Top Rank ‘under the table’ without Arum’s knowledge or consent.”
During this explanation, Keane and his legal team felt it necessary to insert a footnote into the lawsuit: “In DuBoef’s view, UFC would be a competitor on ESPN and DuBoef feared UFC would eventually get the entire ESPN boxing deal, as UFC was so well liked and well respected as an operator.”
If that comes to pass in the form of TKO beating Top Rank to the punch of landing a premier broadcast deal, DuBoef’s alleged fears – past and present – may be justified.