Everything I Know About Commercial Dispute Resolution I Learned from Boxing and Combat Sports

Few industries combine high stakes, global audiences, and intense personalities quite like combat sports. Boxing and other combat sports regularly generate complex disputes involving promoters, broadcasters, athletes, sanctioning bodies, and commercial partners—often under extreme time pressure and public scrutiny. The need to resolve conflicts quickly while preserving events, contracts, and reputations has produced practical approaches to dispute resolution that blend legal precision with deal-making instincts.

Drawing on lessons from the world of boxing and combat sports, this session explores what commercial dispute resolution can learn from an industry where negotiation, leverage, and timing are everything. Topics include managing disputes when events cannot be delayed, balancing regulatory and commercial interests, navigating high-profile conflicts among powerful stakeholders, and applying the pragmatic problem-solving culture of combat sports to complex commercial disputes beyond the ring.

Speakers

• Jeffrey G. Benz, Esq., FCIArb, FCollArb, CEDS, Arbitrator & Mediator (Moderator) - JAMS London
• Ivory Bishop - Counsel - Cozen O’Connor
• Stephen Townley, FCIArb - Arbitrator & Mediator - JAMS
• Shalabh Gupta - Associate Director - Secretariat
• Isabelle Mercier - Senior Vice President & Associate General Counsel - TKO