Trainer James sues Spence, accusing him of shorting him millions
Former unified welterweight titleholder files counter suit insisting he was paid what he was owed under their oral agreement
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Trainer Derrick James and Errol Spence Jr., who became a stalwart in the pound-for-pound rankings and unified three welterweight world titles under his career-long guidance, are now going to fight it out with each other in court over money.
Their relationship, forged when Spence was still an amateur, has dissolved in a dispute over millions of dollars James claims he is owed.
James filed suit against Spence on April 17 in the District Court of Dallas County in Texas, claiming that his oral agreement with Spence called for him to receive 10 percent of his purses to train him for each fight.
Spence filed a nine-page counter suit requesting that James’ case be dismissed and claiming that James was properly compensated for all 29 of their fights together.
James is seeking “no less than $5 million” from Spence, claiming fraud and breach of contract for shorting him what he was owed for his services to train Spence for his one-sided ninth-round knockout loss to Terence Crawford in their long-awaited showdown to produce the undisputed welterweight champion as well as additional money from his four other pay-per-view bouts.
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“This lawsuit was filed because Mr. James discovered Mr. Spence’s breach of contract, fraudulent business practices and misrepresentations after Mr. Spence received the $25,000,000 guaranteed fight purse” for the Crawford bout, according to the 19-page lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Fight Freaks Unite.
According to the suit, James was paid $350,000 for the Crawford fight not $2.5 million, which would represent 10 percent of Spence’s total compensation, much of which was generated beyond a base purse and included his “back end” on his percentage of the pay-per-view profits.
James said in the suit he and Spence operated on the 10 percent fee throughout his career and neither of them ever spoke about changing it.
“He trusted that Mr. Spence was also performing under the terms of the agreement and had no reason to doubt otherwise,” James attorney Adraon D. Greene wrote in the suit. “At no time did Mr. James and Mr. Spence agree to change the terms of the agreement. After each fight, Mr. Spence delivered payment to Mr. James and Mr. James presumed he was being compensated pursuant to the parties’ agreement.”
Spence’s suit claims James was not entitled to any percentage beyond his official fight contract.
“Spence is grateful for James’s longtime assistance but is disappointed by James’s recent attempted overreach to try and obtain payment beyond their longstanding agreement and exceeding the scope of the services that James provided,” Spence’s suit said. “Because Spence performed under the parties’ agreed-upon fee arrangement by paying James ten percent of his fight purse, as understood by and between the parties, Spence does not owe James any unpaid compensation.
“Spence and James’ oral agreement does not provide that James would be paid 10% of Spence’s total fight revenue, such that Spence is not required to pay James 10% of revenue tied to a fight generated from pay-per-view or otherwise.”
James has a much different perspective as his suit explained, including detailing how James trained Spence for free as he prepared for the 2012 Olympics and even traveled with him to the games at his own expense.
“Throughout Mr. Spence’s career, Mr. James became more than a trainer and was Mr. Spence’s friend, confidant and mentor. The relationship and bond they formed was one based on trust,” the suit said.
The suit alleges that while James was paid in a timely fashion for Spence’s pay-per-view fights against Mikey Garcia, Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Yordenis Ugas and Crawford, he was not paid his rightful share of Spence’s take on each fight and discovered he wasn’t even paid the 10 percent of what was on the bout agreement for the Garcia fight much less the total guarantee.
“After each fight, Mr. James trusted that Mr. Spence paid him pursuant to the terms of their agreement,” the suit said. “At no time before or after any of the aforementioned fights did Mr. Spence ever provide Mr. James with any of the fight contracts, revenue agreements, an accounting of the PPV revenue, or an accounting of his guaranteed purse or revenue received for any fight. Nonetheless, Mr. James trusted ‘The Truth’ was a man of his word and that ‘The Truth’ would not defraud him, cheat him, rob him or misrepresent the amount of his guaranteed fight purse to his longtime trainer, friend, confidant and mentor. Mr. James trusted that Mr. Spence would honor their agreement and pay Mr. James the amount that was promised, due and owed for the labor and/or services Mr. James provided.”
According to the lawsuit, James “trained another fighter for a major fight and that fighter paid James more than the $350,000” that Spence had. Combined with media reports that Spence had earned $25 million for the Crawford fight, James questioned whether he had been paid what their agreement called for.
As the suit explained, James waited for Spence to “heal physically, mentally and emotionally” from the Crawford loss before questioning him about the apparent discrepancy but when he tried to contact Spence about it his calls went unanswered.
James, according to the suit, began to question not only is pay for the Crawford fight but also for the other pay-per-view bouts that also included money far greater than the figure listed on the bout agreements.
“Mr. James realized for the first time that he could not simply trust the ‘The Truth’ had fully paid him in the past for the labor and services he provided,” the suit said. “On February 13, 2024, Mr. Spence and Mr. James spoke for the first time about the guaranteed amount Mr. Spence received for the Crawford fight. During that conversation and for the first time in their over 11-year professional relationship, Mr. Spence asserted that Mr. James was not entitled to receive 10% of his guaranteed purse. Based on that interpretation, Mr. Spence asserted someone named ‘Al’ told him that paying Mr. James $350,000.00 for the Crawford fight in exchange for his training services was ‘generous.’
“However, no one named ‘Al’ was present when Mr. James and Mr. Spence originally entered into their agreement nor was anyone named ‘Al’ present when Mr. James provided training services to Mr. Spence for each fight. Thus, any alleged reliance by Mr. Spence on advice from someone named ‘Al’ regarding Mr. James’ compensation is misplaced. Consequently, Mr. James (through his attorneys) sent a letter to Mr. Spence on February 14, 2024, which demanded an accounting of all of the aforementioned fight purses.”
The “Al” Spence was referring to is quite obviously Al Haymon, Spence’s career-long manager/adviser, who has put together every fight of Spence’s pro career, done all of the PPV deals and founded Premier Boxing Champions.
James claimed in the suit that in a phone conversation with Spence on Feb. 15 that Spence said he was paid $25 million for the Crawford fight and that Spence said he was “man enough and honest and truthful” enough to admit that he “did rob” James by paying him only $350,000 and that he “had to own up to it.”
James claims in the suit that Spence agreed via text to pay him an additional $2.15 million on the Crawford fight the following week because he was not “liquid” at the moment and then reneged. The suit provided screen shots of the text message exchange.
“Mr. James conservatively estimates there remains due and owing to him an amount in excess of $5,000,000.00 for the work, labor, and/or services furnished” in training Spence for his five PPV bouts, according to the suit.
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Is 1% of the total amount, including PPV, a standard practice?
Sounds like James has got a good case