UFC has reached a new settlement that they hope will end the promotion’s battle in a class action lawsuit nearing trial.
The top fight organization has agreed to hand over $375 million to Cung Le et al, a group representing fighters who competed under the promotion’s banner from 2010 to 2017.
The Le class was suing the promotion with allegations of antitrust violations, specifically using “improper strategies to dominate the market for MMA fighter services, allowing it to pay its MMA fighters less than half as much as they otherwise would have received.”
Financial terms of the agreement were announced by UFC’s parent company TKO Group Holdings in an SEC filing earlier this week. Further details from the settlement, including any information on non-financial relief, have not been disclosed thus far.
The deal, while agreed upon by both parties, cannot be confirmed before a crucial approval by Judge Richard F. Boulware, who has overseen the case in the U.S. state of Nevada.
Judge Boulware has once before blocked a deal that would have dissolved UFC’s ongoing legal battles. He notably denied a $335 million settlement in July, an agreement that would have not only gotten rid of the Le et al v. Zuffa case, but also Kajan Johnson et al v. Zuffa, a lawsuit that represents fighters from 2017 and onward.
While Judge Boulware has yet to publish his official reasoning for denying the previous agreement, he expressed significant skepticism about the deal during court hearings. He reportedly had notable concerns about the settlement’s figures being lower than the $800 million to $1.6 billion that the Le class looked to attain and worried if the minimal amount of injunctive relief would provide much impact on UFC’s business practices.
The new agreement provides a higher amount of money and attempts to settle with just one of the two antitrust lawsuits instead of both at once.
“While we believe the original settlement was fair — a sentiment that was also shared by Plaintiffs — we feel it is in the best interest of all parties to bring this litigation to a close,” said an official UFC statement released on Thursday.
UFC states that they are in the process of attempting to dismiss the Johnson v. Zuffa case, which is not nearly as far along as the other lawsuit.
The previous settlement attempt by the UFC and Le class delayed a trial between the parties, which was expected to kick off earlier this year. The case currently has a new trial date of early February 2025. If the settlement is denied, it’s unclear whether the trial date would be moved once again.
The Le class lawsuit against UFC has been viewed by many as one of the final chances for fighters to legally challenge the promotion’s business model. Newer UFC contracts include a “class action waiver,” which limits a talent to only suing the promotion on an “individual basis” as opposed to with a group of other plaintiffs. While fighters could sue the promotion individually, the power and ripple effects from a class action lawsuit could not happen with a batch of newer talents, making the ongoing legal battle even more consequential.
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