Judge’s ruling could force answers to how Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions operates

Powerful boxing manager Al Haymon’s attempt to move Oscar De La Hoya’s $300-million antitrust lawsuit against him out of the courts and toward a potential settlement in arbitration was denied this week by a federal judge.

The denial followed a similar decision by an arbitrator who has presided over De La Hoya’s split with his former Chief Executive Richard Schaefer and Haymon, and sets up the possibility of depositions, discovery exchanges and other details about how Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions operates.

Haymon manages Floyd Mayweather Jr. and several other high-profile fighters who split with Golden Boy this year, including unbeaten fighters Deontay Wilder, Leo Santa Cruz, Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia.

PBC started staging fights in March and has time-buy deals to have cards televised by NBC, ABC, CBS and ESPN, among others.

“Everything is going to come out,” said veteran fight promoter Bob Arum, whose Top Rank Inc. is also suing Haymon.

Haymon has a policy to not speak to reporters.

De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions is suing Haymon, the creator of PBC, for alleged violations of the federal Muhammad Ali Act that forbids a boxing manager from operating simultaneously as a fight promoter.

Haymon has retained promoters such as TGB Promotions in Sherman Oaks and Lou DiBella in New York to handle the promotions of various PBC cards, but Golden Boy claims in its lawsuit that Haymon is paying those promoters a small fee and actually directing fighter purses himself.

In addition to the backing of a Kansas asset management company, Waddell & Reed, PBC is backed by other shareholders who could be identified as a result of the ruling in the Los Angeles court of U.S. Central District Court Judge John F. Walter.

Emails and other exchanges that reveal how PBC conducts business are also expected to be sought by those suing Haymon.

Arum sued Haymon earlier this year, alleging his practices intend to monopolize the sport. Arum lost former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to a settlement with PBC and is fighting in court to keep unbeaten super-featherweight champion Mikey Garcia from fleeing to PBC.

In his Tuesday ruling, Walter supported a Sept. 1 decision by arbitrator and retired judge Daniel H. Weinstein that determining the alleged antitrust actions “are not within the scope of the arbitration provision and that those claims are not presently arbitrable.”

Walter also scolded Haymon’s attorneys.

Although “the court was confident that defendants’ counsel would realize that the motion was now moot and withdraw it to avoid wasting judicial resources, counsel made the puzzling decision to pursue the motion and raised patently frivolous arguments in the reply,” Walter wrote.

Attorneys for Golden Boy Promotions and PBC did not immediately respond to interview requests from The Times.

Arum said Haymon’s attorneys have moved to dismiss his $100-million lawsuit filed on the same grounds as De La Hoya’s, but said the motion “has no chance.”

Times researcher Kent Coloma contributed to this report.