Judge Rejects UFC’s $335 Million Class-Action Lawsuit Settlement With MMA Fighters

A federal judge scuttled the proposed $335 million settlement between the UFC and fighters in two separate class-action lawsuits who alleged the MMA promoter violated antitrust laws.

On Tuesday, Judge Richard Franklin Boulware II of the U.S. District Court in Nevada issued a ruling denying the settlement. The judge, who did not provide any explanation in the initial ruling, set a status conference for Aug. 19 and a trial date of Oct. 28 for one of the two cases that were part of the settlement, Le v. Zuffa. It’s possible the parties could reach a new settlement agreement before then for the court’s consideration.

The decision comes after TKO Group Holdings, UFC’s parent company, announced an agreement in March 2024 to pay $335 million to settle two class-action lawsuits. Zuffa, the predecessor entity that owned and operated UFC, 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). Of the proposed $335 million settlement, 90% was to have been paid to the plaintiffs represented in Le v. Zuffa. An additional lawsuit, Johnson et al. v. Zuffa, was filed in 2021.

According to the UFC, Boulware’s denial of the settlement agreement at the preliminary approval stage is unprecedented among recent antitrust class-action suits. The judge’s decision precludes the proposed settlement from even reaching the point in the approval process where class members are notified and objectors given the opportunity to weigh in on the settlement, per the UFC. At the most recent court hearing on the settlement approval on July 12, the plaintiffs’ counsel urged the judge to approve the settlement, arguing that a denial “would set back the rights of fighters for years.”

Under the proposed settlement, fighters in Le v. Zuffa were to receive on average $200,000, with a median recovery of $73,000 and a minimum of $13,000 — with 36 class members to have been paid more than $1 million.

The lawsuits alleged Zuffa violated antitrust laws by paying UFC fighters far less than they were entitled to receive and eliminating or hurting other MMA promoters. UFC fighters Cung Le, Nate Quarry and Jon Fitch filed their initial complaint against Zuffa in federal court in California in December 2014; that was subsequently joined by fighters Brandon Vera, Luis Javier Vazquez and Kyle Kingsbury. On June 23, 2021, Kajan Johnson and C.B. Dollaway filed a proposed class-action antitrust lawsuit against Zuffa and Endeavor 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.

TKO is scheduled to release second-quarter 2024 results prior to the market opening on Thursday, Aug. 8.