Category: UFC Antitrust Lawsuit

No surprise here: Full list of fighters and managers set to defend UFC in lawsuit

Posted on by Zane Simon in MMA News, UFC Antitrust Lawsuit, UFC News

The UFC antitrust lawsuit continues its slow and steady march toward trial. First filed in 2014, the claim from a group of former fighters that the world’s largest MMA promotion has abused their power while effectively operating as a monopoly in the world of mixed martial arts achieved class action status only just last year.

In the months since, things have been moving at a much more serious pace, with both sides gearing up for what seems like a surefire showdown in the courtroom. Most recently, the UFC filed a list of the fighters, some of whom qualify for class status (competed in one or more live professional UFC-promoted MMA bouts taking place or broadcast in the United States from December 16, 2010, to June 30, 2017), that will be testifying on their behalf. It comes with absolutely no surprises.

July 23, 2022, Greenwich, London, London, UK, United Kingdom: LONDON, UK - JULY 23: Michael Bisping, UFC commentator and retired mixed martial artist during the UFC Fight Night: Blaydes v Aspinall event at The O2 Arena on July 23, 2022, in Greenwich, London, United Kingdom. Greenwich, London United Kingdom - ZUMAp175 20220723_zsa_p175_017
UFC commentators are going to defend their current employers? | Scott Garfitt / ZUMA Wire, IMAGO

Donald Cerrone, Michael Bisping among fighters set to testify for the UFC

As we already reported, no fighters included in the qualifying bout class (about 1200 athletes in total) chose to remove themselves from the lawsuit against the UFC. So even among those set to testify on the promotion’s behalf, most of them stand to gain if the plaintiffs succeed. That said, there is one notable exception.

Bloody Elbow’s John Nash shared the details from the UFC’s filing on Twitter.

Fighters set to testify for the UFC:

  • Michael Bisping: A former champion and current regular member of the UFC broadcast team, Bisping has long been a supporter of the promotion’s pay structure.

    “To be honest, it makes me mad, because people don’t understand,” Michael Bisping said back in 2012, when asked about critics of the UFC’s pay structure. “I’ve worked hard, and I get [the amount stipulated in the contract], but when Dana comes into the locker room and gives me a check afterwards, they don’t have to do that.
  • Donald Cerrone: Known throughout his career for being one of the promotion’s most loyal ‘fight anyone at any time’ company men, Cerrone retired from competition in 2022 to focus on his acting career. During his time in the Octagon, however, he was also a vocal supporter of the promotion’s pay structure.

    “It’s like, listen, you just fought on a regional show for $2,000. Now the UFC’s giving you whatever the 12 and 12 or whatever that is, so that’s clearly more than what you’re earning now,” Cerrone told reporters, speaking of younger fighters complaining over pay at a 2022 presser. “They work so hard, they put their whole life on hold to get in the UFC. And then they get in the UFC and they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m here.’ And they kind of just back off the training. They’re no longer the killers and doing what they need to do to become the entertainers and the person that the UFC signed them to be.”
  • Michael Chandler: Not part of the class for this version of the lawsuit, Chandler does meet the standards for inclusion in a separate class action case filed by former UFC lightweight Kajan Johnson. Despite spending the majority of 2010-17 fighting for Viacom-owned rival, Bellator, Chandler has been a vocal supporter of his new home since making his Octagon debut in 2021.

    “…I don’t have a problem with the quote/un-quote ‘fighter pay’ argument,” Chandler explained in a 2022 interview. “I think people think we should make a lot more money because the UFC makes a ton of money on their shows. Well, the UFC’s been at it since 1993. Dana White has had 10,000 sleepless nights when most of us fighters are just showing up to practice and going to bed, laying our head on the pillow and getting after it—and getting paid a decent wage for what we do.”
  • Chael Sonnen: A former multiple time title contender, Sonnen’s relationship with the UFC hasn’t always been a rosy one. The ‘American Gangster’ ended his Octagon run in ignominy, following a failed drug test. After four years of retirement, he made his return to competition with Bellator and even had a stint working the desk with the WSOF. In more recent years, however, he’s been working more closely with UFC broadcast partner ESPN and has been a noted supporter of Endeavor/Zuffa business strategy.

    “Can you name 1 company on Earth that gives 50/50 revenue split?” Sonnen social media post replying to Combat Sport’s Law’s Erik Magraken, before going on to argue that the UFC is simply operating within the parameters of natural market forces in a much longer video reply.

    In a separate attempt to try and defend UFC’s controversial low fighter pay, Sonnen previously made dubious claims about supposedly earning $8,800,000 in the rematch against Anderson Silva. In reality, lawsuit documents showed that Silva got just $2.5 million while the full payout for Sonnen was just $1.05 million — over eight times less than his claim.
  • Miesha Tate: Unlike Sonnen, while Tate has had significant roles with promotions outside the UFC (a 3-year stint with ONE Championship as a Vice President in the promotion’s front office), she’s also never had a public falling out with them either. Tate hasn’t been nearly as active in the fighter pay debate as the other names on this list, but did come to the promotion’s defense after revealing that she had spent all of her $200,000 purse on fight camp expenses.

    “I’m not complaining about what the UFC pays me,” Tate told the MMA Hour back in 2021. “The UFC paid me $200,000. I wouldn’t get that anywhere else I don’t think. So look, I got $200,000 to spend on my camp. I reinvested it in myself, almost all of it. It wasn’t a bad choice. I’m not broke. I own my house free and clear. I own my cars free and clear. I have a great life. So I know I’ll make hand over fist when I’m a champion again, that’s the ultimate goal. Some fighters don’t spend that much money. There’s some fighters out there who cut corners.”

MMA managers coming to UFC’s aid as well

Outside of the UFC’s obvious market dominance when it comes to prominence and opportunity for fighters looking to ‘make it big’ in MMA, one of the longstanding criticisms around the sport is the seemingly often cozy relationship that talent managers have with UFC brass. Nothing brings that critique into sharper focus than the noted figures said to be representing athletes’ best interests that are prepared to offer their testimony for the UFC.

That list includes Dominance MMA founder Ali Abdelaziz, Iridium Sports Agency CEO Jason House, KHI vice president Josh Jones, American Top Team owner Dan Lambert, and RFA/LFA president Ed Soares.

Documentation from the filing notes that these men represented talent including Anderson Silva, Junior Dos Santos, Gleison Tibau, Rosa Namajunas, Donald Cerrone, Miesha Tate, Bobby Green, Fabricio Werdum, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Rafael dos Anjos among dozens of others.

The UFC antitrust lawsuit is set to go to trial on April 8th, 2024, barring any pre-trial settlement agreement. If it does proceed as planned it should be fascinating to hear the arguments presented by these fighters and managers in support of the UFC.

UFC gets no loyalty, zero fighters exit class action lawsuit

Posted on by Zane Simon in Crime, MMA Business and Finances, MMA News, UFC Antitrust Lawsuit, UFC News

The UFC has found plenty of defenders over the years within the ranks of fighters who once fought for the promotion. Some, like Forrest Griffin get actual day-to-day jobs working for the promotion in one of their many business interests. Others, like Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping, are part of a long string of athletes brought in to provide color commentary in the broadcast booth.

Even when it comes to things like fighter pay, there are no shortage of fighters happy to say that the UFC gave them all the money they earned and more.

“To be honest, it makes me mad, because people don’t understand,” Michael Bisping told MMA Fighting way back in 2012. “I’ve worked hard, and I get [the amount stipulated in the contract], but when Dana comes into the locker room and gives me a check afterwards, they don’t have to do that. Far from it. I was already very happy with the money I was getting, but then they’ll hand you another check on top of that and say, ‘Well done…good job,’ and there’ll be another huge check inside the envelope.”

No fighters ask to exit UFC class action lawsuit

Given the amount of support the UFC has as a leader in the industry, then, it may be somewhat surprising to learn that they’re not getting a lot of backup when it comes to the still looming UFC class action lawsuit.

First filed in 2014, but only just recently granted class certification, the lawsuit covers somewhere around 1,200 athletes that competed inside the Octagon between December 2010 and June 2017. In it, the UFC has been accused of a variety of anti-competitive practices aimed to keep fighter salaries low and rival promotions from gaining a foothold in the industry. If successful, the lawsuit could provide not just damages to those fighters who meet the class requirements, but could even potentially shake up the UFC’s current fighter contract structure.

Despite the vocal support the UFC may get in interviews and social media, it seems nobody is willing to take the opportunity to really show their solidarity and pass up the opportunity for an extra check. Combat Sports Law reports that lawyers working on behalf of the fighters produced the following filing this week, formally announcing that no eligible athletes chose to opt out of the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs submit this notice to confirm: (1) the Court’s approved plan for distributing notice to members of the certified Bout Class (the “Notice Plan”) has been effectuated as required by this Court’s November 17, 2023, Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Unopposed Motion to Approve Class Notice Plan, ECF No. 921 (“Class Notice Order” or “Order”); and (2) no members of the Bout Class have requested exclusion from the certified Bout Class. The attached Declaration of Plaintiffs’ Notice Administrator, Steven Weisbrot, President and CEO of Angeion Group, LLC (“Angeion”),1 and accompanying exhibits detail the implementation of the Notice Plan and the absence of valid exclusions or objections from Bout Class members.

Put more simply, on November 17th, Angeion Group was tasked with notifying those athletes that meet the criteria of the UFC antitrust lawsuit, and with giving them the option to opt out should a decision be made in the plaintiff’s favor. According to Combat Sports Law’s reporting, the notifications included a letter sent to the athletes, an email notice, a media campaign, posted notices at 48 gyms, and a website and hotline dedicated to the lawsuit.

Despite no apparent interest from fighters in removing themselves from the proceedings, the UFC has apparently asked that the opt-out window be extended in response to the plaintiff filing above.

Chael Sonnen rips monopsony complaints, doesn’t opt out

Perhaps few fighters have been so willing to attack some of the arguments at play in the UFC class action lawsuit as former title contender Chael Sonnen. A talent with the UFC from 2009 to 2013, the 46-year-old is right square in the middle of the Bout Class classification. Recently, however, he’s made a point of public criticism of the idea that fighters are entitled to a bigger share of UFC revenue.

“Can you name 1 company on Earth that gives 50/50 revenue split?” Sonnen replied to a post from Combat Sports Law’s Erik Magraken, who noted that the antitrust lawsuit probably wouldn’t exist at all if the promotion weren’t withholding such a large share of their profit from their fighters.

“Price is set by the market,” Sonnen said, continuing the argument in a November 17th video posted to his YouTube—in which he responded to Magraken and the UFC antitrust case at length. “Nothing else sets price. Nothing. Not revenues, not debts, not assets, not longevity, not even talents. Those would all seemingly be good things to go in, when you’re negotiating, and trying to get market value, but they don’t directly set the value, the market does.”

“[Magraken] is coming in and saying the UFC is not paying enough, therefore it’s a monopoly and it’s unfair and there’s nothing fighters can do—when he’s confronted with the idea that they are paying market value. Chatri would not tell you any different, Scott Coker would not tell you any different, Donn Davis at the PFL, they won’t tell you any different. The UFC is paying market value. And they come to us and we can give the same thing, and we can trade them around. As long as the contract is up and we can all do our best to find the matchups that we think are the most compelling, that we can work with. That’s the business, very straight forward.”

Maybe if the UFC is granted the opt-out continuation that they seek, fighters like Sonnen will be lining up to jump ship and make it clear that they believe the UFC doesn’t owe them a dime. If that doesn’t happen, however, then it feels like the chance was given for fighters to stand up and say they don’t support this class action lawsuit, and everyone decided to stick with it and see where it goes.