According to paperwork obtained from the circuit court of the 17th Judicial Circuit in Broward County, Florida, George Kambosos Jr. (who is scheduled to face Vasiliy Lomachenko on Saturday night in Perth, Australia) has been ordered to pay former manager Peter Kahn $350,297.47 in a judgment following a 2022 lawsuit for breach of contract.
Kahn sued Kambosos for lost wages.
According to the paperwork, the judgment became final on April 4. On May 6, the circuit court served DiBella Entertainment and Top Rank (Kambosos’ promoters) with writs of garnishment, which ordered the two entities to withhold any funds set to be paid to Kambosos and to pay those monies to Kahn.
I reached out to Kahn, who didn’t have a comment on the judgment but referred me to his attorney, Carl Berry. According to Berry, whom I spoke to by phone and text, “it was pretty basic.”
An order has been sent to DiBella and Top Rank to garnish Kambosos’ wages, and those funds would go to Kahn. The promoters have 20 days to respond to the writ of garnishment.
“Service of the writ makes the garnishee [Kambosos] liable for all debts due by him or her to the defendant, and for any tangible or intangible personal property of defendant in the garnishee’s possession or control at the time of the service of the writ, or at any time between the service and the time of the garnishee’s answer. Service of the writ creates a lien in or upon any such debts or property at the time of service, or at the time such debts or property come into the garnishee’s possession.”
Kambosos does have the opportunity to insist that some of the funds should be exempt. At that point, the court will have to decide on specifics relating to any potential exemptions.
According to Berry, who also spoke with Ring Magazine, there were several legal hurdles to overcome to get to this point, “and George [Kambosos] ignored all of them. One way or the other, Peter [Kahn] will get his money.”
As Kambosos, 30, attempts to continue rebounding from losing his undisputed lightweight championship and the rematch to Devin Haney in 2022 (fight deals Kahn negotiated), there are issues to contend with outside the ring.
Once the matter with Kahn is resolved, Kambosos may have more legal issues to tend to, as his now-former trainer–another Berry client–Javiel Centeno- also has a pending lawsuit against the fighter for lost wages.
According to Berry, who spoke to Ring Magazine in October 2022, “It’s the same situation with Javiel. “Because he [Kambosos] shorts Javiel the money after he beats Teofimo Lopez, and then he shorted him again for George’s first fight with Haney. Quite honestly, I’ve seen guys shorted before, but this is a little more than what I normally see. Have you ever seen where trainers and managers have sought this kind of money from a [fighter] before? To me, this seems quite a bit different from what I’m normally accustomed to seeing in the sport.”
Kambosos will face Lomachenko in the main event of an ESPN card from his home country, Perth, Australia, on Saturday, May 11.
