Manny Pacquiao. AFP PHOTO
Score a win for Manny Pacquiao over Floyd Mayweather Jr.
A federal judge ruled Monday (Tuesday in Manila) that Mayweather has to pay Pacquiao more than $113,000 for intentionally dodging deposition in the defamation suit filed by the Filipino champion and boxing’s only eight-division world champion last year.
According to Courthousenews.com, Nevada Judge Larry Hicks ordered the WBC welterweight and WBA light middleweight champion to shell out $113,518.50 for attorneys’ fees and $774.10 for court costs Pacquiao incurred in the suit meant to clear his reputation.
Pacquiao had accused Mayweather, his father Mayweather Sr. and uncle Roger, of maligning him by issuing statements alleging that he used performance-enhancing drugs to bolster his ring performances.
Finding the suit meritorious, Hicks ordered Mayweather to appear for deposition between June and October last year, but the unbeaten American snubbed the summons claiming that he was preoccupied with training.
Several articles, photos, and videos, primarily from TMZ, however, showed otherwise as Mayweather was seen at nightclubs, gallivanting and, worse, even burning a $100 bill.
These developments prompted Pacquiao’s lawyers to demand for sanctions against the five-division champion.
Though Hicks, in a ruling last October, refused to grant Pacquiao default judgment on the basis of the blatant disregard for deposition, he ordered Mayweather “to pay deposition costs and attorneys’ fees as a sanction.”
While the sanction may not put a hole in Mayweather’s pocket as he reportedly earned $85 million last year, it further diminished his already tainted character.
Last June, Mayweather was imprisoned in a Las Vegas jail for domestic violence.