The decade-long road in an antitrust lawsuit between the UFC and a group of plaintiffs led by former fighter Cung Le appears to finally be at its end…again.
On Tuesday, Nevada federal judge Richard Boulware gave his preliminary approval of a $375 million settlement between both sides, giving a lifeline of sorts for hundreds of former UFC fighters desperately in need of money. The next step following formal approval is for the UFC to actually pay the money into an escrow account and for the Le legal team to then disburse the remaining funds after recovering their fees.
Those fees, expected to be $115 million, cannot be more than 33% of the total award. According to journalist John Nash, the team “will have to show their hours and expenses to the Judge who identifies a lodestar figure to determine if the attorneys fees are justified.” The amount can be challenged by Boulware and/or the fighters.
The fighters would be paid in June 2025 after the final installment of three payments from UFC/TKO into an escrow account.
An initial settlement of $335 million was denied by Boulware in March, prompting both sides to negotiate the new agreement which was submitted in late-September. Boulware said the declarations/statements garnered from fighters wanting a deal to be signed played a “quite significant” role in his decision.
From the new settlement terms, the Le side submitted the following on how much fighters could expect to get:
“Under the Settlement, Le Class members would recover (on average), after all fees and costs are deducted, $250,000. Thirty-five Class members would net over $1 million; nearly 100 fighters would net over $500,000; more than 200 fighters would recover over $250,000; over 500 fighters would net in excess of $100,000; and nearly 800 would recover over $50,000. By any reasonable measure, the Settlement, if approved, would put “life changing” cash into the hands of the families of several hundred fighters now.”
The Le suit included as many as 1200 fighters that competed in the UFC at least once between December 16, 2010, through June 30, 2017, that didn’t choose to opt out. They collectively sued the UFC for lost wages and back pay, claiming the UFC signed them into long-term agreements and then bought up all of their competition, stifling the market.
The suit is one of two with the remaining Kajan Johnson vs. UFC antitrust case still to be decided.
The Johnson case is similar in nature to the Le case, but covers a different timeframe after fighters had signed waivers against being part of a class action lawsuit. The Johnson case is looking for injunctive relief in addition to damages which would change how future contracts could be written.