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UFC Reaches $375M Settlement in Le v. Zuffa Antitrust Lawsuit

The UFC and Fighters Have Reached a Settlement, but Its Approval Remains to Be Seen

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In breaking UFC news, the world’s biggest MMA promotion has announced it has reached a revised settlement agreement with its UFC fighters in the Le v. Zuffa, TKO Group lawsuit.

 

UFC Reaches $375M Settlement in Le v. Zuffa Antitrust Suit
Julien De Rosa / Afp

Settling the Score

The UFC and approximately 2000 former and current fighters have reached a new agreement in a class action lawsuit after a previous $335 million settlement was denied by U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware in July.


The revised settlement calls for the organization to shell out $375 million for the UFC’s violation of federal antitrust laws by limiting the combatants’ pay. Dana White, the modern-day UFC’s founder, and the organization continue to deny the allegations despite the settlement agreement.

TKO submitted an 8-K Form with the SEC that stated the organization had “reached an agreement with the plaintiffs to settle all claims asserted in the Le case for an aggregate amount of $375 million payable in installments over an agreed-upon period of time by the Company and its subsidiaries (the ‘Updated Settlement Agreement’).

We have reached a revised agreement with Plaintiffs to settle the Le case with terms that we believe address Judge Boulware’s stated concerns,” TKO Group said in a statement. “While we believe the original settlement was fair—a sentiment that was also shared by Plaintiffs—we feel it is in the best interest of all parties to bring this litigation to a close.

Nevada-based U.S. District Judge Richard Boulware will need to approve the new agreement for the matter to be resolved.

 

Long-Standing Feud

The recent settlement agreement dates back nearly a decade when five related class-action lawsuits were filed between December 2014 and March 2015 regarding UFC fights that took place on the UFC schedule between December 16, 2010, and June 30, 2017, alleging that the organization allegedly cut costs by diminishing pay for their cage fighters.

The UFC had a stranglehold on the sport, and its actions were considered injurious to other smaller MMA promotions. Those five lawsuits were consolidated in June 2015 into the one remaining (Le et al. v. Zuffa). Should this new agreement be approved, each fighter would receive an average of $200,000, with 36 fighters being paid more than $1 million apiece, but each litigant would have the option of opting out of the lawsuit or objecting at a fairness hearing.

In a related but separate class-action legal action, former UFC fighters Kajan Johnson and C.B. Dollaway filed their own suit against Zuffa and Endeavor (Johnson et al. v. Zuffa) with similar allegations regarding the organization’s violations of antitrust laws. The time period of this lawsuit lists fights that took place from July 1, 2017, to the present.

Zuffa Entertainment sold the UFC to William Morris Endeavor et al. for $4.025 billion in 2016. The TKO Group was formed last year after an Endeavor-led merger between the WWE and UFC, with Endeavor maintaining a majority share of the company.

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