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Daniel Dubois can move on to his next fight having been paid in full for his last one.
BoxingScene.com has confirmed that a filed against Don King Productions (DKP) by the heavyweight contender was settled and dismissed with prejudice in a Broward County, Florida courtroom. As previously reported, Dubois and his legal team settled the matter out of court with the Hall of Fame promoter, ensuring that Dubois would receive full payment less agreed credit against his guaranteed purse for his June 11 knockout win over Trevor Bryan in Hollywood, Florida.
“Plaintiff Daniel Dubois, by and through his undersigned counsel, hereby files this Notice of Voluntary Dismissal with Prejudice in this matter,” Leon Margules, Dubois’ hired attorney for the case, stated in a filed letter with the 17th Judicial Circuit of the Circuit Court for Broward County, a copy of which was obtained by BoxingScene.com.
King was provided a copy of the letter that was sent to his office on August 24 via certified mail.
The case was filed on August 1 with the 17th Judicial Circuit of the Circuit Court for Broward County, Florida, alleging an outstanding debt between $463,274.32 and $938,274.32 stemming from the Don King-distributed Pay-Per-View event. The disparity between the figures was due to the uncertainty in whether King paid Dubois’s sanctioning fees to the WBA and/or taxes to the U.S. Department of Treasury.
The June 11 fight was contested for a secondary version of the WBA heavyweight title that Bryan (22-1, 15KOs) has held since last January. King secured the rights to the mandatory title fight after submitting a winning purse bid amount of $3,116,001 on March 21, outpacing Frank Warren—Dubois’ promoter and head of Queensberry Promotions, who bid $2,503,000 in hopes of bringing the fight to England.
Dubois was entitled to 45 percent of the winning bid, totaling $1,402,200.45, as a former interim titlist whose status was converted to mandatory challenger after the WBA eliminated all interim titles last summer. From that amount, Dubois’ side credited $475,000 from final payment for monies received through a license fee from BT Sport, which carried the event live in the UK. Dubois was also contracted to pay three percent of his purse in sanctioning fees, totaling $42,0661.01.
The fight saw Dubois manhandle Bryan before knocking out the American in the fourth round to earn his place in line for a shot at the full WBA heavyweight title. Dubois remains one of three mandatory challengers in waiting for unified WBA ‘Super’/IBF/WBO/IBO heavyweight titlist Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13KOs), who recently defended his crown in a repeat win over Dubois’ countryman and former two-time unified titlist Anthony Joshua (24-3, 22KOs) on August 20 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Prior to August 24, Dubois remained without the bulk of his owed paycheck. Part of the claim on the DKP side in not releasing payment was in connection to allegations that Warren had a $200,000 debt with King for more than two decades. As much was claimed among three DKP press releases addressing the matter—the first two seeing King gaslighting his longtime promotional adversary.
A third release saw King provide receipts dismissing claims made by Warren, including one that his Queensberry Promotions wasn’t involved in the promotional side of the event nor in the fight contract between King and Dubois, as alleged in an interview with IFL TV. An agreement dated June 8 confirmed that Queensberry approved a $475,000 deduction from Dubois’ purse reflecting the BT Sport license fee.
King also included a copy of a Truist Bank wire transfer totaling $319.561.72 sent to an approved account by Margules Law Group. The remaining amount owed to Dubois has been satisfied to the point of the matter no longer requiring a court of law to decide. Upon submission of the Notice of Voluntary Dismissal with Prejudice, the matter can no longer be tried in court.
“I asked the honorable Frank Warren, my friend, to tell me what amount he wants me to deduct or to apply as a partial payment on the old debt that you owed me,” King stated in the latest press release from his office. “I also mention that if you did not want to make any payment at this time, just let me know, either way your word and your directions was good enough for me. So, I reached out to your new champion, Daniel Dubois, through another party, and the champion Dubois advised me to go through Mr. Leon Margules.
“So, I am sending Mr. Margules a check, or a bank wire for the entire amount of what I had deducted as payment of the old debt between Frank Warren and Don King. Which will result into the honorable Frank Warren’s old debt owed to me being put back on the shelf again. But I have no doubt that Frank will pay me the old debt, and that we will work together again. Working together works!”
Dubois (18-1, 17KOs) awaits a fall date for his next fight, which will mark the first defense of his secondary WBA heavyweight title. Talks have swirled of a potential showdown with countryman and recently defeated title challenger Dillian Whyte, though such a pairing strictly remains a rumor as this goes to publish.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox