Pacquiao’s Lawyers to Get $113K From Mayweather

(CN) - Floyd Mayweather Jr. must pay more than $113,000 for dodging a deposition in the defamation action filed against him by a fellow boxer, a federal judge ruled.

Emmanuel Pacquiao claims that Mayweather defamed him by telling journalists and others that Pacquiao uses performance-enhancing drugs.

When Mayweather was supposed to sit for deposition between June and October last year, he never showed. In a demand for sanctions last year, Pacquiao told the court that Mayweather was photographed at nightclubs across the country, dancing, drinking and burning money, all while claiming that he was too busy training.

"Mayweather decided that he, not the court, would determine if and when his deposition would take place," according to the motion. "Busy living the 'luxurious lifestyle non-stop,' 'pour[ing] champagne for [his] friends,' and keeping the company of 'attractive women,' Mayweather refused to be deposed. He disobeyed properly served deposition notices, filed specious 'emergency' motions, openly defied this court's order directing him to appear, and serially misrepresented his whereabouts to Pacquiao and this court. Exposing Mayweather's untruths was a massive - and expensive - undertaking."

In October 2011, U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks in Las Vegas refused to grant Pacquiao default judgment on the basis of the discovery misdeeds, but he ordered Mayweather to pay deposition costs and attorneys' fees as a sanction.

Pacquiao filed for attorneys' fees, Hicks entered an award of $113,518.50 on Monday.

"The court notes that the award of attorney's fees in this matter is a sanction against Mayweather's obviously intentional decision not to appear for his court ordered deposition," Hicks wrote. "This was a direct discovery violation after the court had entered a very clear order that the deposition go forward."

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