Variety: UFC Reaches New Settlement in Fighters’ Antitrust Lawsuit, Agrees to Increase Payout to $375 Million

Story from Variety:

UFC is hoping to get a court’s OK on a new $375 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed by former fighters alleging the MMA promoter violated antitrust laws.

Under the revised settlement in the larger of two cases, Le v. Zuffa, TKO Group — the parent company of UFC — will pay $375 million to the plaintiffs. Previously, TKO had agreed to pay around $300 million to the plaintiffs who are party to the Le lawsuit.

The news comes after Judge Richard Franklin Boulware II of the U.S. District Court in Nevada in July rejected TKO’s proposed $335 million settlement between the UFC and fighters in two separate class-action lawsuits (Le v. Zuffa and Johnson v. Zuffa). Of that amount, 90% was to go toward plaintiffs in the Le case. Regarding the Johnson case, TKO Group said Thursday, “that process is in very early stages, and a motion to dismiss the complaint remains pending.”

“We have reached a revised agreement with Plaintiffs to settle the Le case with terms that we believe address Judge Boulware’s stated concerns,” TKO Group said in a statement. “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.”

On Thursday, TKO filed an 8-K form with the SEC that said the company “reached an agreement with the plaintiffs to settle all claims asserted in the Le case for an aggregate amount of $375 million payable in installments over an agreed-upon period of time by the Company and its subsidiaries (the ‘Updated Settlement Agreement’), following the court’s denial of an earlier proposed settlement agreement. TKO said the terms of the updated settlement agreement “have been memorialized in a long form agreement, which will be submitted to the court for approval.” The company said it expects that the settlement amount will be deductible for tax purposes.

The lawsuits, which date back nearly a decade, allege Zuffa (the predecessor entity that owned and operated UFC) violated antitrust laws by paying UFC fighters far less than they were entitled to receive and eliminating or hurting other MMA promoters.

Zuffa was the defendant in five related class-action lawsuits filed between December 2014 and March 2015, which were consolidated into a single action in June 2015 (Le et al. v. Zuffa). In June 2021, former FC fighters Kajan Johnson and C.B. Dollaway filed a proposed class-action antitrust lawsuit against Zuffa and Endeavor (Johnson et al. v. Zuffa) with similar allegations that UFC engaged in illegal anticompetitive action.

TKO Group was formed last year through the Endeavor-led merger of UFC and WWE. Endeavor maintains a majority interest in TKO.