UFC agrees to $375M settlement in antitrust suit

The UFC has reached a new settlement in one of its antitrust lawsuits and hopes a judge will greenlight it.

TKO Group — the UFC’s parent company — reached an agreement Thursday with the plaintiffs of Le vs. Zuffa that will pay $375 million in the class action lawsuit in which former fighters allege the MMA promotion violated antitrust laws.

This amount exceeds the proposed $335 million settlement that Judge Richard Franklin Boulware II of the U.S. District Court of Nevada rejected in July.

Following the filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the UFC released a statement about the settlement in the Le case. However, the second antitrust lawsuit led by former UFC fighter Kajan Johnson was not mentioned in the disclosure.

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

“As for the Johnson case, that process is in very early stages, and a motion to dismiss the complaint remains pending.”

The antitrust lawsuit dates to 2014, when Zuffa was accused of violating antitrust laws by paying UFC fighters less than they were entitled to, and those practices hurt other MMA promoters. The lawsuit also alleges that the UFC has gained an unfair advantage in the mixed martial arts industry through years of anti-competitive tactics and engaged “in a scheme to acquire and maintain monopsony power in the market for elite professional MMA fighter services.”

The UFC has defended itself by saying that it has invested in the sport while pointing out rival promotions that have emerged over the past three decades as evidence of an equal playing field.

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