https://www.mmanews.com/news/judge-delays-approval-ufc-antitrust-lawsuit-settlement-serious-concerns
A judge overseeing the settlement between TKO and class-action UFC fighters is concerned over the reported settlement payout.
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If you didn’t think the UFC could have a more stressful last few days, things only got worse on June 14.
Per Paul Gift of Forbes (@MMAanalytics on X), a judge on June 14 elected to not approve the settlement made between the UFC’s parent company, TKO Holdings, and the fighters suing the promotion in class-action lawsuits that date back to the last decade.
According to Gift, the judge has “serious concerns” about the settlement amount and wants to see a fighter-by-fighter breakdown of the money that athletes will be receiving.
Back in March, TKO settled class-action lawsuits originated from fighters Cung Le and Kajan Johnson, which — respectively — represented more than 1,200 fighters that competed in the UFC from December 10, 2010, to June 30, 2017, and from July 1, 2017, to 2021.
While the plaintiffs originally sought up to $1.6 billion dollars in damages, the settlement reached ultimately saw the plaintiffs receive $335 million.
Judge Feels Settlement In UFC Antitrust Lawsuit Is Too Low Of A Payout
According to Gift, the judge is concerned that fighters from the Le portion of the lawsuit are only receiving $161 million when the case was originally certified at $800 million - $1.6 billion.
Gift added another thread on X of notes stemming from the conference on June 14.
Gift notes how the UFC wanted to settle both lawsuits in one swoop, but the judge preceding over the settlement may want to see these two suits separated.
The reporter also wondered how the judge may react seeing estimates of every fighter during this time period, which includes big names like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey.
The next court date on the antitrust action will be in two weeks.
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I was gonna write my last Forbes piece once the #UFC antitrust settlement is signed. That’ll have to wait now. Next court date is in 2 weeks. Some other notes on today’s conference: Cramer said it’s a “pathbreaking” case. Judge B: So “substantial risk of going to trial?”
Sure this has nothing to do with Donald Trump attending events. Maybe the judge will throw out the plea and grant the plantiffs a five billion dollar summary judgment.
Awesome 3fie
Is the judge going to just love it when he finds out the really abused older fighters are going to get like $50,000 before taxes while Conman McFlake and the adorable and ever-likeable Ronda Rousey walk away with millions?
I’m pretty sure that is not what the intended outcome of this whole thing was.
When you claim you get 10% of revenue or whatever and a judge agrees more is retroactively owed, it doesn’t mean everyone gets their relative cut of the pie when that 10% was made up of 9% going to like 4 people and 100s of people splitting the other 1%.
When I read that rumour about those two getting huge payouts it was absolutely ridiculous.
I’d argue the 1%ers here got paid a fair enough share and the lacking revenue should 100% have gone to the rest of the fighters.
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