Manny Pacquiao has launched a new legal counterattack in Los Angeles Superior Court, filing a malicious-prosecution lawsuit that targets the waiter who sued him nearly ten years ago and the law firms that took that case to court. The complaint names Gabriel Rueda and law firms including Khan Law Office, Withers Bergman, and Pierce Bainbridge Beck Price & Hecht, and seeks both compensatory and punitive damages for what Pacquiao’s lawyers say are years of reputational damage and millions of dollars in legal fees.
Background: the finder’s-fee case
The new filing grows out of a 2016 lawsuit brought by Gabriel Rueda, who was working as a server at Craig’s in West Hollywood when he claimed he helped arrange a meeting that played a role in setting up the 2015 Mayweather-Pacquiao bout and said he was owed a finder’s fee. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Rueda initially sought millions of dollars and at one point asked for as much as $42 million, sparking years of litigation in Los Angeles courts. Pacquiao’s new complaint calls that earlier case baseless and alleges the claims were pushed to squeeze out a settlement.
Key evidence uncovered
Pacquiao’s attorneys point to a draft letter from May 2015, which they say was recovered in 2023 through court-ordered forensic retrieval of Rueda’s iCloud account, as undercutting the core story. In that letter, Rueda wrote that he “asked for nothing in return.” According to BoxingInsider, the complaint also says Rueda received a ticket to the fight, a hotel room and about $10,000 for expenses, and that these details were not produced in a timely way despite discovery requests. Pacquiao’s filing argues that delayed disclosures and other inconsistencies show the prior lawsuit moved forward without genuine evidentiary support.
What the filing alleges
The new complaint accuses Rueda and his legal team of building a case on fabricated allegations, including text messages Rueda claimed came from Pacquiao’s associates that Pacquiao’s side says were actually copies of a widely circulated drug-cartel scam. Pacquiao’s lawyers describe the situation as “arising from one of the most egregious abuses of the civil justice system,” a phrase quoted by the Los Angeles Times. The filing states that after those messages were discredited, Rueda dropped the more sensational threatening-text allegation in 2024.
Why it matters
Pacquiao’s complaint casts the new suit as an effort not only to repair his name but also to recoup the millions he says he poured into defending himself and to sanction what his camp calls deliberate misuse of the courts. BoxingInsider reports that the filing effectively flips years of defensive litigation into an offensive push for compensatory and punitive damages, and asks that the named law firms be held to account as well. For a global sports figure whose first fight with Mayweather generated extraordinary revenue, the stakes are framed as both financial and symbolic.
Legal implications
Under California law, a malicious-prosecution claim generally requires that the earlier case ended in the new plaintiff’s favor, lacked probable cause and was brought with malice, standards that courts have said are not easy to satisfy. As explained by FindLaw, judges interpret this tort narrowly because of concerns about discouraging legitimate lawsuits, and a favorable outcome in the prior case is not by itself proof of malice or lack of probable cause. To win, Pacquiao’s side will have to convince the court that the original suit was both groundless and pursued for an improper purpose.
What’s next
With the complaint now on file in Los Angeles Superior Court, the defendants will have their chance to respond through the usual civil-procedure steps, including answers or motions, discovery and potentially further dispositive motions before any trial. If the case moves forward, expect fights over discovery and the handling of allegedly withheld evidence to take center stage, with the possibility of settlement talks hovering in the background given the money and reputations involved. For the moment, a long-running dispute rooted in the 2015 fight has been reborn as a fresh courtroom battle in Los Angeles.
