After a decade of delays, the long-awaited UFC antitrust lawsuit was finally set to see its day in court April 15th. The case — where fighters alleged the UFC used illegal monopsony power to prevent them from negotiating fair market value contracts — could have cost the UFC over a billion dollars and changed the way contracts were structured.
Instead, the promotion settled with fighters for $335 million, ending the case before it really got started.
While six-time UFC champion Randy Couture wasn’t one of the fighters working hand in hand with antitrust lawyers to push the case forward, he knows more than a little about the UFC’s iron grip on the sport. During a press conference to promote the PFL’s upcoming 2024 season, he shared his thoughts on the settlement.
“Obviously, three of the biggest class action law firms in the business spent the last 10 years pursuing this, so there has to be some merit there,” Couture said (via Fansided). “We know that [UFC] had a tendency to buy out anybody that was a threat or anybody that was being successful in the sport — Strikeforce on down the line. That’s the monopsony that the class action points out, and the way they do business.
“650 athletes signed to a very exclusive restrictive contract,” he added. “There’s no transparency in the sport. We figured out the math, we know their goal was to keep the fighters on any given card to under 20 percent of the take from that fight. Show me another professional sport where that’s the case.
“My concern is in the settlement, there’s no injunctive relief,” he said. “We’re not forcing UFC to change the way they do business, which was what the class action set out to do. So yes, great that there’s fighters in that class and I’m in the class. We’ll see some remuneration for potential money that they lost in that period by not having a free and open transparent marketplace.
“But, at the end of the day, we’re not forcing the promoters to do business any differently and that’s an issue,” Couture concluded. “So, it’ll be interesting to see when the courts finally stamp off because we’re all being a premature. It hasn’t been approved yet, the settlement.”
Plaintiff Nate Quarry tempered expectations when the settlement was reached, saying they didn’t get everything they wanted. Injunctive relief wouldn’t even be discussed until after a second anti-trust case covering fighters from 2017 onwards was dealt with, potentially stretching the case out for several more years.
There’s still a small chance we could see some changes included in the settlement. As Couture noted, the court must approve the deal reached between UFC and fighters. If the judge doesn’t believe it goes far enough in making fighters whole, it could be rejected.
All will be made clear in the next 30 to 45 days as lawyers hash out the final settlement paperwork. As for the money? If all is approved, fighters covered under the class action lawsuit should start receiving payments in fall 2024.
What are the odds this is settled as is(?)
roughly 100%
In this jurisdiction Judges rarely intervene when parties agree to a settlement.
Bottom line, the fighters folded for money
And not very much money at that when you net out expenses and taxes and divide by 650 or whatever.
Somewhat ironic.
Attorney fees… at least 1/3
THIS ^
Antonio has caught the correct
Trust me I know.
Part of my job is dealing with fucking lawyers and their rates and then dealing with my clients that complain about those bills.
Not. Cheap.
It might be more for a class action
If we assume that all 1200 athletes are eligible to receive a portion of the settlement and that the $335 million settlement amount is divided equally among them, we can calculate each athlete’s payout as follows:
Total settlement amount = $335,000,000
Number of athletes = 1200
Payout per athlete = Total settlement amount / Number of athletes
Payout per athlete = $335,000,000 / 1200 ≈ $279,166.67
So, each athlete would roughly receive around $279,166.67 if the settlement amount were divided equally among them. However, this is a simplified calculation, and actual payouts may vary based on the final terms of the settlement, legal fees, and other factors.
You left out attorney fees, which are probably at least 1/3
Attorney fees 112,000,000 leaving 223,000,000 divided by 1200=$185,834.00
I wonder if there will be a lawsuit over the division. It would seem the fairest thing would be to create a share for each fight and divided that way…
That’s a really good point, a fighter with 2 UFC fights shouldn’t be getting the same payout as a 20 fight veteran.
It’s not getting doled out equally. The big names like Conor, Brock and Rhonda are getting almost all of it. IMO they deserve it because they’re the only reason anyone watches.
Is that how it works?
Is it every fighter to have worked for the UFC automatically? I thought it was just those that joined the class action?
I just heard Luke Thomas say that and he’s followed it pretty closely.