By Edward Chaykovsky
A strange twist in a lawsuit connected to the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao mega-match from last May.
The highly successful pay-per-view event generated 4.6 million buys and over $670 million in revenue.
Gabriel Rueda, a waiter at celeb hot spot Craig’s, filed suit in February for $8.6 million against Pacquiao, trainer Freddie Roach and CBS. According to Rueda, he claims to have played an important role in helping Mayweather-Pacquiao become a reality.
In his legal documents, Rueda says he approached CBS chairman Les Moonves one night at Craig’s and offered to set up a meeting with Roach, who trains Pacquiao. He says the meeting between Roach and Moonves got the ball rolling for the Mayweather-Pacquiao negotiations.
Rueda claims that he was promised a substantial "finder's fee" - if Mayweather-Pacquiao was finalized. In his legal documents, he claims to have been rewarded for his efforts and received a ticket to the fight, one night at a Vegas hotel and a $10,000 check to cover expenses. But his reward felt short of what the parties allegedly promised him.
Now enters a new party to the legal battle - Richie Palmer, a very wealthy restaurant owner.
Palmer, who is friends with Roach, claims that Rueda enlisted him to set up a meeting with the Hall of Fame trainer. Palmer did his part, because Rueda promised half of the finder's fee. Now Palmer is going after 50% of whatever money Rueda is able to secure from his lawsuit.
Palmer’s lawyer Cary Goldstein filed a motion to intervene in Rueda’s suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. He says without his help Rueda would have never been able to contact Roach and set up the meeting with Moonves.
“Freddie is like my brother. I would never do anything to hurt him,” Palmer told the New York Post.
“I help everybody out. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, but if this guy’s going to get millions of dollars, I should get half. I made the fight happen. He didn’t. And he’s suing all my friends, so f *** him.”
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