The UFC might nonetheless find yourself going to court docket over accusations that it used it’s energy as a monopsony within the MMA world to illegally underpay fighters for years.
Sure, this is similar antitrust case that’s been winding its means by way of courts for almost a decade. It includes two class motion lawsuits: Le (representing fighters from 2010 to 2017), and Johnson (representing fighters from 2017 to 2021). Again in March it was introduced that a settlement had been reached between UFC and attorneys representing the fighters value $335 million.
Now it sounds just like the decide overseeing the case might reject that settlement and power the case to a jury trial.
The problem lays in how the settlement can be break up between the 2 lessons: Le fighters would obtain six determine funds, whereas Johnson fighters would obtain a flat price of $3000. With no vital modifications in the way in which UFC does enterprise with its fighters, that’s a bitter tablet for them.
“It’s tough for me to grasp why, if Johnson had been settling individually, that class members would conform to this quantity of injunctive reduction,” Courthouse Information Service quoted Choose Boulware as saying.
Boulware famous that present UFC contract stipulations bar fighters from taking part at school motion lawsuits, that means a settlement would imply “they offer up, roughly, their skill to convey any declare towards UFC within the close to future.”
So in a wierd twist, fighter attorneys might discover themselves being compelled to go to trial when it’s clear they’d relatively settle for a settlement and simply stroll away.
Choose Boulware has mentioned he’d render a choice on the settlement within the subsequent week.
