Tuesday 30 March 2010

SCHAEFER HIRES JUDD BURSTEIN TO DEFEND AGAINST PACQUIAO’S DEFAMATION SUIT -- PhilBoxing

By Jason Aniel, PhilBoxing.com

San Francisco, CA—On March 25, 2010, Golden Boy Promotions, through their counsels, filed a motion to dismiss the Manny Pacquiao’s complaint of defamation against Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions. Back on December 30, 2009, (and latter amended on March 17, 2010), Pacquiao filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court in Nevada, claiming Schaefer, De La Hoya, Floyd Mayweather Jr., Floyd Mayweather Sr., and Roger Mayweather made defamatory statement that ruined Pacquiao’s reputation to the public. To be clear, the motion to dismiss Pacquiao’s lawsuit is a specific relief from Schaefer and De La Hoya and not the Mayweathers.

American Son: My StoryRichard Schaefer has hired the services of Attorney Judd Burstein to defend against the lawsuit. Burstien has represented many boxers in many types of litigations and lawsuits, including Manny Pacquiao. Burstien was Pacquiao’s attorney when Pacquiao filed a lawsuit against his former Promoter Murad Muhammad back in 2005. Now Burstein is representing Schaefer and is attempting to get Pacquiao’s complaint against Golden Boy Promotions dismissed.

Without getting to into too many legal details, Golden Boy Promotion’s basic position is that their statements about Pacquiao’s possible PED use were opinions and reasonable questions based on the facts that lead to suspicion that Pacquiao is using illegal PEDs.

The motion claims that Pacquiao’s refusal to submit to random blood testing by the United States Anti-Doping Agency or Olympic styled testing in his negotiations with Mayweather Jr., has created the suspicion of PED use. Pacquiao and his team has already made clear that they would not submit to any additional drug testing that is not required by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. If Mayweather wants Pacquiao to take random blood testing, then make that request to the commission and if they approve it, Pacquiao will respect that request.

The motion also spends a lot of time defending the random blood testing process. They claim that a little over half a tablespoon of blood would be withdrawn from the body and would be sufficient to conduct the appropriate drug testing. Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley have agreed to USADA random urine and blood testing prior to their May 1 bout.

Schaefer also denied making any statements that Pacquiao was using PEDS to Philippine Reporter, Ronnie Nathanielsz.

Pacquiao’s, through his attorney, amended their initial defamation complaint. The amended complaint includes the recent comments made by Roger Mayweather where he claims Pacquiao is on “A-Side Meth.” The complaint also requests damages in excess of $5,000,000.

It has been widely believed that the defamation lawsuit was a media stunt to drum up more interest in a potential Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. However, there is definite movement in the lawsuit and Golden Boy Promotion is not backing down by filing a motion to dismiss the complaint. In what was a “contract issue” of additional drug testing has become a legal manner for both sides.

Source: philboxing.com

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