Ultimate Fighting Championship and mixed martial arts fighters will duke it out in a trial set for 2025.
Las Vegas, NVUltimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and parent company TKO Group Holdings Inc. will duke it out during a trial with mixed martial arts fighters who accused the promoter of supressing their wages. Nevada federal Judge B Richard F. Boulware II rejected a $335 settlement because he wanted to see “life-changing” money for the fighters who filed multiple lawsuits a decade ago.
(Many lawsuits have been filed against Nevada-based Zuffa, a company that formerly housed UFC and in 2015 the two were consolidated into a single action. And in April 2023 Zuffa was replaced as the parent of UFC after a merger of Endeavor Group Holdings and World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. As a result of this megamerger, TKO was created.)
UFC Zuffa Allegations
The first lawsuits were filed by six UFC fighters in December 2014, alleging that UFC abused its market power to acquire or block rival promoters and used exclusive contracts to keep fighters within the UFC.
The fighters allege that Zuffa used exclusive contracts with specific provisions to retain fighters within the UFC, used its market power to render its fighter contracts effectively endless, and achieved a monopoly or monopsony by acquiring or driving out rival promoters. The lawsuit states:
Fighters are treated as independent contractors and are only compensated upon their participation in a bout,
Zuffa based pay solely on whether fighters got matches and where UFC allegedly used a variety of coercive measures to avoid paying them.
Those measures include threatening to set up fighters with unknown opponents to hurt their rankings or matching them with dangerous opponents.
The system was set up where the clock didn’t start running on the end of a fighter’s contract until their last fight, so UFC would allegedly deny or delay them a chance to fight and thus get paid.
UFC would also allegedly suspend contracts “indefinitely” to lock fighters into a contract and keep them from coming out of retirement, even years later, to fight for competitors.
Such illegal and anticompetitive behavior has led to Zuffa’s widespread success and dominance in the MMA market, the plaintiffs – the mixed martial arts fighters— claim.
Settlement Denied
In March, TKO Group Holdings (the parent company of UFO) and the fighters agreed to an initial deal whereby UFC agreed to pay $335 million to settle claims that the promoter used coercive contracts and other tactics to eliminate competition from rivals. They alleged the organization suppressed professional fighters' wages by as much as $1.6 billion, through coercive, exclusive contracts and the purchase of rival promoters, wrote Law360. By July, however, Judge Boulware nixed the settlement and said to both parties that he would explain his decision in due course. Law360 learned that Boulware set the trial date during an August hearing, leaving open the possibility of reaching another settlement before February 2025. (The trial date was originally set for October, according to Reuters.)
Class Action
Judge Boulware in August 2023 said that one group of 1,200 martial arts fighters can band together as a class action. They were seeking damages estimated at between $811 million and $1.6 billion. This class action involves fighters who competed in at least one professional UFC mixed martial arts bout in the U.S. between December 2010 and June 2017. (A separate lawsuit involving fighters in bouts from mid-2017 until present had not yet been certified.). A lead attorney for the plaintiffs said the UFC pays its fighters only 20% of its event revenues, when boxing and other major sports pay well above 50%, reported Reuters.
UFC’s lawyers countered with Zuffa planning to challenge the certification order in an appeal. And the UFC has denied any antitrust violations. One UFC lawyer said, “This is just one step in a long legal process…[the lawsuit] is legally and factually meritless” and UFC boasted that it has "a healthy and competitive MMA market which benefits athletes, promoters, and fans alike." Boulware doesn’t see UFC that way, saying that the plaintiffs had established that "members of the Bout class suffered economic injury as a result of defendant's anti-competitive conduct."
The Alleged Scheme
The Hollywood Reporter wrote in January 2024 that UFC’s alleged scheme to build and maintain a monopoly by systematically eliminating competition from rival mixed martial arts promoters have “foreclosed a large share of fighters,” especially those who are top-ranked, from the market, noted Judge Boulware. UFC stands to lose more than $4 billion since damages in antitrust cases can be trebled.
The cases are Le et al. v. Zuffa LLC, case number 2:15-cv-01045, and Johnson et al. v. Zuffa LLC et al., case number 2:21-cv-01189, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.
If you or a loved one have suffered losses in this case, please click the link below and your complaint will be sent to an employment law lawyer who may evaluate your California Unpaid Wages claim at no cost or obligation.