Jake Paul, Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing reach settlement in $100M defamation lawsuit
Eddie Hearn's defamation lawsuit against Jake Paul will not proceed to trial after the parties reached an out-of-court settlement earlier this month.
The plaintiffs, Hearn and his company Matchroom Boxing, as well as plaintiff intervenor Glenn Feldman and Paul notified a New York court on March 18 that all parties have agreed on a settlement in the defamation case, which was first filed in September 2022.
Attorneys for all parties officially filed for dismissal on Monday. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Hearn and Matchroom sued Paul in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, after Paul alleged the boxing promotion was paying veteran judge Feldman to score fights in favor of Matchroom Boxing's fighters in a September 2022 interview with iFL TV.
The first Katie Taylor vs. Amanda Serrano fight and the Oleksandr Usyk vs. Anthony Joshua rematch were discussed by Paul in his accusation against Hearn and Feldman.
Taylor vs. Serrano 1, which was co-promoted by Hearn's Matchroom and Paul's Most Valuable Promotions, ended in a polarizing split decision where the Matchroom fighter, Taylor, emerged as the winner. Feldman scored the bout 97-93 for Taylor. Usyk vs. Joshua 2 also ended in a split decision with Feldman controversially handing in a 115-113 scorecard for Matchroom's flagship fighter, Joshua.
Paul claimed that "clearly [Feldman] was getting paid money by Matchroom Boxing [to score fights in favor of their fighters]" following Feldman's scorecards for the two aforementioned bouts. Hearn and Feldman vehemently denied the claim made by Paul. Matchroom requested that Paul retract his comments a day after the interview, which he refused to do.
As a result, Matchroom filed a $ 100,000,000 claim against Paul in a New York court in September 2022, with Feldman joining the suit as a co-plaintiff the following month.
Paul's motion to dismiss Matchroom's suit was denied by a New York judge in September 2024, which led to a settlement conference being scheduled this past December.
Despite the case ongoing in the background, Hearn and Paul managed to twice agree on deals for fights: Taylor vs. Serrano 2, which took place this past November on the Mike Tyson vs. Paul undercard and was won by Taylor, and for the third fight between the legendary duo slated to unfold July 11 on Netflix.
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