A Nevada federal judge has approved a preliminary $375 million settlement agreement between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and several UFC fighters who accused the mixed martial arts company of unlawful wage suppression.
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Latham & Watkins represented UFC in this antitrust class action filed in 2014 by Berger Montague, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and the Joseph Saveri Law Firm.
“The settlement we helped MMA fighters achieve recovers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost compensation from the UFC,” Benjamin D. Brown, managing partner of Cohen Milstein and co-chair of its antitrust practice, said Wednesday in a press statement.
“We are extremely pleased by the court’s decision,” Eric L. Cramer, chair of Berger Montague and co-chair of its antitrust department, said Wednesday in a press statement. “It is a monumental achievement that will provide significant relief to hundreds of deserving MMA fighters.”
U.S. District Judge Richard F. Boulware II granted preliminary approval of the settlement agreement Tuesday.
“This decision is welcome news for both parties,” a UFC spokesperson said Thursday in a statement provided to the National Law Journal. “We are pleased to be another step closer to bringing the Le case to a close.”
Counsel for MMA fighters Cung Le, Nathan Quarry and Jon Fitch filed the antitrust class action against the UFC in 2014 followed by an amended complaint in 2015 that included additional plaintiffs Brandon Vera, Luis Javier Vazquez and Kyle Kingsbury. The amended complaint accused the UFC of wage suppression and maintaining an unlawful monopoly through “anticompetitive, illicit and exclusionary acts” in violation of the Sherman Act.
Fighters who competed in UFC bouts in the United States from December 2010 through June 2017 could be eligible for settlement funds if the court grants final approval. Settlement funds would be allocated to class members who submit valid claims, and the minimum recovery amount would be $15,000.
Another antitrust class action filed against UFC in 2021 remains active in Nevada federal court.
UFC is a registered trademark of Zuffa LLC, a Nevada limited liability company headquartered in Las Vegas. The company agreed to settle claims in the matter, which was captioned Le v. Zuffa.