A lawsuit may stop Mayweather’s June 27 fight as legal troubles keep piling up.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s already complicated year just got considerably more expensive. A production company is suing the undefeated boxing legend for $4.65 million, claiming he took their money and walked away from two of the most anticipated fights the sport has seen in years, and the lawsuit could now threaten a comeback event scheduled for later this month.
The lawsuit and what it’s claiming
CSI Sports Events filed a complaint Thursday in New York, alleging it paid Mayweather $4.65 million in advances in exchange for exclusive rights to promote two major events: an exhibition against former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and a professional rematch with Manny Pacquiao. According to the filing, CSI wired $4.5 million to Mayweather last year, then transferred an additional $150,000 the very day before he announced a separate exhibition against 18-time kickboxing world champion Mike Zambidis, set for June 27 in Athens, Greece.
The company contends that Mayweather violated the terms of their agreement by committing to fight Zambidis while still under contractual obligation to face Tyson first. CSI is now seeking a court injunction to block the Athens event entirely and wants the full $4.65 million returned.
How the Tyson fight fell apart
The Tyson exhibition had been publicly announced in September 2025, with Mayweather reportedly set to earn $14 million, including a $2 million advance already in hand. Plans had targeted a spring event, with the Democratic Republic of Congo among the proposed venues, before a hand injury forced Tyson to delay.
Per the lawsuit, CSI maintains Tyson was prepared to reschedule within a six-month window, and that the agreement prohibited Mayweather from fighting anyone else unless Tyson remained unavailable past Nov. 30. By that interpretation, signing on for Zambidis put Mayweather in direct breach of contract.
The Pacquiao rematch turns into a three-way promotional mess
CSI’s complaint also sheds new light on what has become an increasingly tangled situation around the long-awaited Pacquiao rematch, the follow-up to a 2015 bout widely considered the richest fight in boxing history. The company says it reached a separate deal with Mayweather in November 2025, guaranteeing him $35 million plus 20 percent of any pay-per-view revenue, or a flat $50 million if the event did not land on PPV. A $2.5 million advance was paid for that event as well.
But CSI claims Mayweather then signed with a separate production company, EverWonder, for a Netflix-backed version of the same rematch, including a new $2.75 million advance and a potential total payout exceeding $28 million. That side deal was eventually resolved through a $5 million settlement between EverWonder and Mayweather.
A mounting legal picture
The CSI lawsuit arrives in the same week Mayweather became the subject of felony bad-check charges in Nevada, connected to allegations that he knowingly used a bad $200,000 check to purchase a luxury watch from a Las Vegas retailer. His legal team has disputed that characterization firmly, arguing there was no intent to defraud and that the matter belongs in civil rather than criminal court.
Beyond those two cases, Mayweather’s financial and legal exposure has grown considerably in recent months, including a reported $7.3 million IRS tax lien, civil suits tied to unpaid bills for rent, jewelry and private jet services, and more than $1 million in outstanding child support obligations.
He is also actively pursuing litigation of his own, including a $340 million case against Showtime and a $175 million fraud lawsuit against former adviser Jona Rechnitz. When the growing scrutiny spilled onto social media this week, Mayweather signaled publicly that the headlines were not weighing on him. He has not yet made any statement specifically addressing the CSI complaint.