Floyd Mayweather Jr. should have known that labeling Manny Pacquiao a cheater was going to cost him eventually. The damages just aren’t occurring in the ring.
A federal judge has ordered Mayweather to pay about $114,000 for avoiding questioning from Pacquiao’s lawyers in a defamation case, according to The Associated Press.
Pacquiao’s attorneys reportedly won more than $113,000 in legal fees and $774 in costs for what U.S. district judge Larry Hicks described as “Mayweather’s obviously intentional decision not to appear for his court ordered deposition.”
Pacquiao alleged that Mayweather defamed him by insisting that Pacquiao used performance-enhancing substances. Pacquiao, of course, has denied that Mayweather’s suggestions are true, and he thus filed a lawsuit in December 2009.
“Calling a professional athlete a cheater is the most serious charge one can make,” the lawsuit reportedly said. “Accusing an athlete of using performance-enhancing drugs — however baseless and lacking in evidence — is toxic.”
What’s also “toxic” is not being able to see these two guys square off in the ring. But that’s a different debate for a different day.
Thumbnail photo via Flickr/SportsAngle.com
