Evander Holyfield Wants His Stuff Back

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Boxing champ Evander Holyfield claims in court that an auction house refused to return items from his collection of boxing memorabilia.

The five-time heavyweight champ says he agreed to auction off hundreds of items, due to financial problems, after he was forced to vacate his Georgia estate, which was foreclosed upon in July.

Holyfield sued Julien Entertainment.com dba Julien's Auctions, and its principal Darren Julien in Federal Court.

Holyfield says he agreed to auction his robes, belts, trunks, awards and other stuff taken from his Georgia home, but there are a number of things he wants back.

He says he identified 20 of 450 items which he does not wish to sell, and after receiving an inventory from the auction house, told it not to list those items in its catalogue.

"Defendants have taken the position, however, that the auction house is entitled to auction off all of Holyfield's personal property of which they took custody in July," the complaint states.

Holyfield says the auction house agreed to remove eight of the not-for-sale items from its online auction catalogue, but never returned them to the boxer.

Twelve items remain in the auctioneer's catalogue, Holyfield says, because Julien has claimed an "unrestricted right" to sell them at an auction set for Nov. 30 in Beverly Hills.

"The auction house has failed to return any of the twenty (20) not for sale items to Holyfield notwithstanding several demands for same, and has not responded to Holyfield's requests that his representative be allowed to retrieve the not for sale items from the auction house," the complaint states.

Holyfield seeks an injunction and punitive damages for conversion, unfair business practices, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract, anticipatory breach of oral contract, false promise, and misrepresentation.

He is represented by Susan Harrison, with Harrison Law and Mediation, of Rancho Palos Verdes.

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