Last March, TKO Group Holding, the parent company of UFC, agreed to pay $335 million to settle two class action lawsuits filed by former UFC fighters. One class action lawsuit named Le v. Zuffa covered the fighters from 2010 to 2017. The fighters from 2017 to the present covered the Johnson v. Zuffa class action lawsuit.
On Tuesday, Judge Richard Boulware denied approval for the settlement because the payout seemed low. The separate written order will be issued in a few days.
Boulware ordered the Le vs. Zuffa case placed back into trial. The status conference will be held on August 19th to decide the trial date. The judge recently stated that the fighters in the Johnson v. Zuffa lawsuit could object to arbitration and class action waiver clauses in existing contracts.
During the hearing, an attorney for the fighters, Eric Cramer, stated, “The reality is the claim has little value. They should take – they’d be better off both taking the money, [and] getting the injunctive relief. The world where that doesn’t happen is not in that fighter’s interests because I would tell that fighter if they were in my office, ‘You’re likely to lose. You’re likely to get nothing.
There are thousands of people out there who could really use that money … and if this settlement doesn’t happen and we are forced to take this case to trial, we will, and lose, that would be devastating for a lot of people. And a lot of money would come out of the pockets of a lot of people.”
Fighters in the lawsuit require a unanimous jury verdict to get the payments. UFC has the opportunity to file an appeal, which means the case could stretch into years. However, UFC and fighters can negotiate a new settlement to close the case with the approval of Richard Boulware.