A lawsuit against famed boxing promoter Don King is seeking more than $3 billion, alleging the 93-year-old falsely denied being involved in an anniversary event for his historic “Rumble in the Jungle.”
The complaint was filed last month in federal court against King by BYD Sports and BYD Management, two limited liability companies, alleging defamation, tortious interference and fraud.
According to the complaint, BYD chief executive Cecil Miller alleges he was working with King for more than a year on a “Rumble in the Jungle 2” before Don King Productions issued a cease and desist claiming no affiliation with the event.
Don King Productions did not immediately return a request for comment from NBC News. An attorney is not listed in the court record for King or the company.
The “Rumble in the Jungle” is King’s most famous events, a 1974 matchup between legendary boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman that took place in Africa. At the time the event took place in Zaire, which is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The lawsuit alleges that BYD had worked with Don King Productions on various events beginning in 2021, and that King had spoken to Miller about his intention to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the match. Miller believed King needed help coordinating “Rumble in the Jungle 2” and BYD sent a proposal on the matter in August 2023, the suit said.
“Although the receipt was acknowledged by DKP’s team, there has never been a written response to the proposal to date,” the suit said.
A copy of a “deal memorandum” was filed with the court documents obtained by NBC News.
According to the suit, Miller and King continued to discuss the anniversary event in detail and Miller proposed Nigeria as a potential venue for the match.
At one point in May, Miller alleges that he spoke to King over information that King’s daughter was interested in holding a similar event and insisted that he would back out if King’s daughter was handling. King allegedly told Miller at the time that his daughter “had a bad history and was not to be trusted” as she previously misrepresented him, the suit said.
BYD continued to work on arrangements for “Rumble In the Jungle 2,” the suit said, but Don King Productions was “avoiding all communications.” The suit also alleges that King misrepresented his rights over the “Rumble in the Jungle” trademark during discussion on the matter.
Don King Productions posted a cease and desist letter to its Facebook page on Nov. 1 addressed to BYD from an Ohio-based law firm. The firm’s letter said it had come to the attention of King and production company that BYD was “falsely representing” to the Nigerian government that they had authorized the “Rumble in the Jungle 2” event.
The lawsuit said that BYD had secured licenses for the event and tickets were set to go on sale the same day the cease and desist letter was posted. According to the suit, Miller received a call days prior from King in which the 93-year-old said he had “no idea” what Miller was doing.
Miller alleged that King gave his “blessing” for the event on video. One of the exhibits included in the court records includes an image of King with the words “it’s go time and Don King cosigned.” That image appears to be a screenshot of a video posted to in which a man pans the camera to King and says “we’re going to get down to business” and King smiles at the camera.
There is no mention of “Rumble in the Jungle 2” in the video and King does not say a word.
Electronic summons were issued to King and Don King Productions on Dec. 19 after it appears there were multiple filing errors in the request for summons.
A judge also ordered BYD to refile its complaint on December, stating that the suit fails to identify the plaintiffs’ citizenship. An amended complaint was filed on Dec. 18 but it failed to rectify the issue.
A judge’s order was issued last week to clarify the citizenship of the LLC members by Jan. 17 or risk the suit’s dismissal, according to court records.
