Boxer Daniel Franco suing Roc Nation Sports, Jay-Z

Daniel Franco of Rancho Cucamonga sustained a serious brain injury during a knockout loss to Jose Haro in June 2017 in Iowa and nearly died, and now the retired featherweight boxer is suing his former promoter, Roc Nation Sports, for damages, according to ESPN.com.

Roc Nation was founded by rap music mogul Jay-Z and he, too, is named in the suit, which claims negligence.

According to the suit, which was filed Tuesday at Los Angeles Superior Court, Roc Nation was negligent in giving Franco three fights in a span of 79 days, even though he wasn’t healthy enough for that kind of schedule. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

ESPN.com obtained a copy of the suit. In part, it read, “The actions of Defendants were an extreme departure from what a reasonably careful person or corporation would do in the same situation to prevent harm to its boxers. Roc Nation and other Defendants recklessly disregarded the health and safety of Franco.”

The first of those three fights that were contested from March 23, 2017 to June 10, 2017, came against Christopher Martin. According to the story on ESPN.com, Franco was sick with the flu before that fight and had not trained for three weeks. He was stopped in the third round.

The suit alleges Franco and his father/trainer Al Franco tried to bow out of that fight but went ahead with the bout after Roc Nation let it be known Daniel Franco would have trouble getting future fights.

Less than two months later, Franco knocked out Francisco Agustin Suarez in the first round, but Suarez was strictly a novice with only one pro bout to his name.

Then came the fight with Haro just 29 days later.

The suit also claims Roc Nation and Jay-Z have done nothing to assist with medical bills, and that the company has ignored Franco since the injury.

Furthermore, the suit states Franco likely already had a brain injury before the bout with Haro and that the defendants did not make sure Franco had proper medical clearance before that fight.

A year after his near-death experience, Franco and his father/trainer Al Franco spoke in great depth about the two live-saving surgeries he required that left him without part of his skull.

“My head’s still like … I try to run every now and then, but it hurts my head still when I run from my brain bouncing around and stuff,” Franco, 27, said in a June 9, 2018 story in this newspaper.

“So I think just from all the procedures I’ve been through that it has loosened some things up.”

Roc Nation declined to comment, the story on ESPN.com said.

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