Streaming Floyd Mayweather's Next Fight Against Andre Berto Free Online? Not If Showtime Can Help It

Care to watch Floyd Mayweather's next fight. Online? For free? Not if Showtime can help it. Showtime filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a sports streaming site that promises to broadcast the fight for free online. Showtime, along with Mayweather Productions, submitted a complaint in Federal district court asking the court to enact a restraining order against MayweatherVsAndreBertoLiveStream.com.

Showtime and Mayweather productions aim to take control of the domain name to prevent other piracy operators from helping fans watch Saturday's fight without a Showtime subscription, or by making money off the ads that will inevaitably fill the site. The suit, first reported by TorrentFreak, claims that leaving the site online will cause “severe and irreperable harm.”

“The Defendants are seeking to benefit from this high profile live Fight by infringing the rights of the Plaintiffs,” the complaint stated. “Plaintiffs are informed and believe and on that basis allege that Defendants know or have reason to know that one or more third parties will obtain the infringing stream from their websites and will redistribute it through other websites.”

This comes after HBO and Showtime filed a joint injunction, which seeks to prevent a defendant from doing something in the future, against a number of popular sports streaming sites before Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao. That bout, billed as the fight of the century, grossed more than any other in boxing history, attracting $410 million in pay per view sales alone. Four days before Mayweather was scheduled to take on Berto, on the other hand, there were still 2,100 seats available.