Promoter Mogens Palle sues Showtime, alleging network helped break contract with WBA champion

European boxing promoter sues Showtime

NEW YORK — A European boxing promoter is suing Showtime, contending the cable network conspired to help WBA super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler break his promotional contract and take part in its round-robin tournament.

The complaint was filed Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan. It claims Showtime was unwilling to work with promoter Mogens Palle in putting together a six-man tournament featuring the 168-pound division that began last weekend in Europe.

The lawsuit says the network secured Kessler by working through German promoter Sauerland Event, which promotes fellow tournament member Arthur Abraham. Palle believes that represents a breach of his exclusive promotional rights to the Danish fighter.

“Kessler was a critical component (of the tournament),” said attorney Jethro Eisenstein, who represents Palle. “Showtime was courting Mogens Palle for some time and … they had what they thought was a bad experience with Palle, and decided that they wanted to go around him.

“Showtime’s intervention, you know, was at least part of the cause of Kessler jumping ship.”

A spokesman for the network said it does not comment on pending litigation.

The ambitious tournament — which includes Carl Froch and Americans Jermain Taylor, Andre Dirrell and Andre Ward — guarantees each of the fighters three opening-round bouts. A points system rewards victories and knockouts, with the four boxers accumulating the most points advancing to seeded semifinals.

The tournament is expect to take about 18 months, with all 12 bouts aired on Showtime.

Abraham opened the event in Germany on Saturday night with a brutal knockout of Taylor, who spent two nights in the hospital and whose future in the tournament is uncertain. In the second fight of a split-site doubleheader, Froch won a close decision over Dirrell.

Kessler is scheduled to face Ward in his opening bout on Nov. 21 in Oakland, Calif.

Palle is not seeking injunctive relief, Eisenstein said. The promoter is instead asking for compensatory damages exceeding $75,000 and punitive damages to be determined by a jury.

“Sauerland and Showtime went around me to get Kessler,” Palle said in a statement. “There are five other fighters and five other promoters involved in the Showtime tournament. Yet Showtime, working with Sauerland, only interfered with and disrupted my exclusive promotional contract with Kessler.”

Palle helped build Kessler into a star in Europe, where he earned $5 million in a loss to former super middleweight king Joe Calzaghe two years ago.

The promoter claims that he’s had exclusive promotional rights to Kessler dating to May 2006, and that their most recent contract grants him the right to promote three more of his fights. Kessler took Palle to court and got out of his contract, and the two have been squabbling over his rights for several months.

“Kessler is a great fighter but he shows zero loyalty,” Palle said. “I built his career for 10 years. He must be suffering from amnesia. I got him the opportunity to win two world titles, which he did, and then the purse of a lifetime against Calzaghe.”

Showtime is a unit of CBS Corp.