UFC’s legal battle against a class action group representing 1,200 fighters will head to court in early 2025.
Nevada Judge Richard F. Boulware announced Monday that Cung Le et al. v. Zuffa is scheduled for a February 5 trial date, giving the parties roughly six months before they head into the courtroom.
The lawsuit, which has been in the works for a decade now, sees fighters who competed in the UFC from 2010 to 2017 allege that the promotion used “improper strategies to dominate the MMA market for MMA fighter services, allowing it to pay its MMA fighters less than half as much as they otherwise would have received.”
The Le case was originally expected to head to trial in April of this year but had proceedings put on hold due to a potential settlement between the parties being reached.
UFC had written a check worth $335 million to get rid of the Le case, along with a newer antitrust lawsuit representing talent from 2017 to 2023. The settlement would have calmed the promotion’s immediate legal worries, and possibly even meant that they wouldn’t have to face antitrust scrutiny from fighters in the future due to waivers in modern UFC contracts that prevent talent from entering class action lawsuits.
While the UFC and two class action groups were in agreement, the deal lacked the essential approval of Judge Boulware, who officially struck down the settlement last month. His official reasoning behind the decision has yet to be published but the Judge was heard in recent court proceedings expressing “serious concern” with the deal. In particular, he took issue with the financial relief being just a fraction of the $800 million to $1.6 billion that the Le class alone was seeking.
Both the UFC and Le class lead attorney Eric Cramer have expressed interest in creating a new settlement that could possibly be approved, and the parties now have six months to iron out a deal while preparing for a potential courtroom showdown.
