Keane vs. Top Rank: The wildest high-stakes boxing lawsuit

What roles do Dana White & Turki Alalshikh play in this Kinahan saga?

How can you legally enforce a supposedly illegal business arrangement involving a racketeering scheme that includes a US government sanctioned world-famous Irish drug lord based in Dubai and doing business in Riyadh?

That is one of about a thousand different questions I have to ask after reading this Billy Keane vs. Top Rank lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles Federal court.

What initially appeared to be an effective public relations lawsuit to impact the reputation of Top Rank boxing boss Todd duBoef is now one of the most fascinating complaints to chew on and digest.

Imagine if this was the essay to dissect on your bar exam.

Among the thousands of questions and story angles this lawsuit complaint raises, these issues initially stand out as the most intriguing to me:

• The fascinating jurisdictional issues (California? Nevada? Federal court? State court?)

• Licensing and regulatory issues involving the main players in this legal story

• Is there even a contract? And if there is a contract, is it legal and enforceable?

• How does this Keane vs. Top Rank lawsuit (regarding Daniel Kinahan) compare to the ghost of PRIDE’s past scandal (recently discussed on Vice’s Dark Side of the Cage)

• Why does this legal complaint read like Dana White fan fiction? Was Todd duBoef really afraid of Dana White entering the boxing world?

• Who is paying Patty Glaser’s law firm to carry out this litigation — and what are their motivations?

• Will there be a divided house between how Bob Arum wants to respond to this lawsuit (aggressively) versus how Todd duBoef wants to respond (just get rid of it)?

• How aggressive does Top Rank want to get into discovery? Will they perform a legal proctology on Dana White? How do you conduct discovery on an Irish drug kingpin whose whereabouts are unknown?

• Will this lawsuit create the conditions for a business divorce between Arum and duBoef? Can they stay united or will Top Rank get sold? And who would want to buy it?

This article is both a dream and an absolute nightmare to write. It’s like rubbernecking at a horrific car crash. You can’t help take your off eyes from the scene of the carnage.

Let’s start analyzing this high-profile, high-stakes litigation and see what inferences we can draw from it.

Can a legal arrangement involving racketeering be enforced?

This is one hell of a question to ask and answer.