A settlement conference in the ongoing lawsuit pitting Matchroom Boxing against Jake Paul is scheduled for Dec. 17 in front of United States magistrate judge Henry Ricardo.
Per the order handed down from the courts, the settlement conference takes place virtually and won’t be open to the public but all parties involved in the case including Paul and Matchroom chairman Eddie Hearn must attend the hearing. The settlement conference could potentially bring an end to the lawsuit, although there’s no telling what might happen until after the hearing is concluded.
Settlement conferences are often held in an effort to reach an agreement between the parties rather than allowing a lawsuit to make it all the way to trial. Both sides were instructed to exchange initial settlement demands to each other prior to the conference in front of the judge.
The scheduling of the settlement conference comes after Judge Paul Gardephe from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Paul’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit back in September, which led to a pre-trial conference being scheduled a few weeks later.
The initial lawsuit filed by Matchroom Boxing alleged that Paul made defamatory statements that Matchroom Boxing “bribed” Glenn Feldman — a boxing judge — “to influence the outcome of two boxing matches that he refereed.”
The boxing matches in question were the first Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight and a matchup between Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.
In an interview, Paul stated that “clearly [Glenn Feldman] is getting paid money by Matchroom Boxing” after he scored the fights for Taylor and Joshua, who are both represented by Hearn’s promotion. Paul claimed that it’s “an accusation that [he doesn’t] take lightly” but added “it’s just so blatantly obvious and they’re not even trying to hide it.”
As a result, Matchroom Boxing filed a defamation lawsuit against Paul and Feldman actually joined the lawsuit as a co-plaintiff in October 2022.
Despite the ongoing lawsuit, Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions still teamed up with Matchroom Boxing to promote Taylor vs. Serrano 2 in November. Taylor ultimately won another razor-close decision in the co-main event to the card headlined by Paul taking on Mike Tyson.
