Now, former WBC, WBA, and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence has fallen out with coach Derrick James completely, and they have not only parted ways, but also gone to court. According to The Ring, James formally filed a lawsuit against Spence this month, and a 19-page lawsuit has been filed in the local court in Dallas, Texas, demanding that Spence pay more than $5 million in damages for fraud, breach of contract, misrepresentation and other issues.
It is understood that Spence immediately filed a counterclaim through his lawyer on the same day he received the indictment.
The contradiction in the dispute between Spence and James is that there are obvious differences between the fighters and coaches on the distribution ratio and amount of income from the competition.
James is the 2022 Coach of the Year who coached Spence for 11 years.
James said Spence is still in arrears for the battle against Terrence Crawford last July, the portion of the fee paid to the coach.
Spence suffered a crushing defeat in the 147-pound welterweight unification bout, but received a $25 million guaranteed appearance fee. James revealed that he only received $350,000 in coaching fees for that game, which was clearly unfair.
On what basis did Spence pay $350,000? According to James, Spence deliberately set a minimum deposit of $2.5 million and spent 10 percent of the $2.5 million — $250,000, plus $100,000 in bonuses, for a total of $350,000, but James insisted that the coaching fees he received should be a percentage of Spence's total income.
Back in 2012, James helped Spence prepare for the London Olympics, after which Spence turned professional and the two signed a long-term partnership agreement, the details of which have not yet been announced.
James described in the lawsuit: When the battle with Crawford was completed, Spence paid only $350,000, the first time in 11 years of cooperation, Spence claimed that I was not entitled to a 10% commission on the total income, and even considered the payment of $350,000 generous.
According to the information obtained by "The Ring" magazine, in the early contracts signed by Spence and James, it was stipulated that the fighters would have to pay 10% of the fee to the coach after each fight, and whether there were special circumstances?
A source revealed that due to the cooperation between Spence and James for many years, the two sides reached a verbal agreement in advance on the proportion of the past few big battles, thinking that it would be fine, because they trusted each other very much, but they didn't expect that something really went wrong.
James said that when Spence paid $350,000, he said he had asked a man named "Al" to tell him, but James insisted that there was no one named "Al" on the team at all, and he did not get any rumors about Spence's reduction.
James is a man of heart, and he kept screenshots of the text communication with Spence as evidence. Later, Spence admitted that he needed to pay James 10 percent of his gross income in the battle with Crawford, which was $2.15 million ($350,000 had already been paid), but Spence said he needed a turnaround time because he didn't have enough liquidity to pay $2.15 million.
In February, James contacted Spence again after a delay of receiving $2.15 million, only to have the other party refuse to acknowledge the issue of 10 percent of the total income, so that the two sides completely tore their faces.
In the lawsuit, in order to clarify the 10% ratio, James listed the coaching fees he received after each game before Spence, and according to the amount, Spence paid at the 10% rate.
Mitch Garcia (March 16, 2019): $3 million
Sean Porter (September 28, 2019): $1.5 million
Daniel Garcia (December 5, 2020): $1.5 million
Jodenis-Ugas (April 16, 2022): $2 million
James also doubted that in the past games, Spence really paid 10% of the total income, so he asked the other party to disclose the list of total income, do a full accounting, and ask Spence to pay interest, reasonable attorneys' fees, court costs, punitive damages, and the plaintiff's expenses, totaling more than $5 million.
Now that Attorney Spence has put a "counter-attack" on James, it remains to be seen what the final outcome will be. The court will hold a hearing on July 29, whether unintentional or intentional, and the date of the Spence vs Crawford fight a year ago.
Spence is currently looking for a new coach after ending his partnership with James and is said to have approached at least three coaches, with Robert Garcia being the more likely. Spence's PBC revealed that if all goes well, Spence will return to boxing in late summer or early fall.