For most of the past 10 years, you didn’t hear much from many current or former UFC fighters about the dueling antitrust lawsuits against the UFC. There was the passionate core group who helped bring the suit, and then there were the indifferent or even wholly unaware masses, who mostly shrugged it off when asked.
Then news of the settlement broke. First it was $335 million. When Judge Richard Boulware rejected that figure in July, the figure was revised to $375 million in September in order to settle one of the two class-action suits. Then news of the settlement broke. First it was $335 million. When Judge Richard Boulware rejected that figure in July, the figure was revised to $375 million in September in order to settle one of the two class-action suits.
Now there was a dollar figure, which made it all suddenly real.
“I won’t lie, I didn’t pay much attention because I figured the UFC has so much power and would just make it go away at some point,” said one fighter who asked to remain anonymous due to concern for career reprisals. “Once I heard there was a settlement it was like, OK, I’m listening.”
Former UFC fighter and current professional wrestler Tom Lawlor showed up in the Las Vegas courthouse for the most recent settlement hearing expecting to see a crowd of familiar faces. Instead he saw just two other MMA fighters and no more than 15 total observers.
“I couldn’t tell you how many guys I talked to where I was the first person to tell them about (the antitrust lawsuit),” Lawlor said. “I mean, this has been going on for 10 years. Even if there was no money to come out of it, I would think you’d follow something like this because it could have a direct impact on your business. It blows my mind how many fighters didn’t even know there was litigation in this direction that had gotten this far.”
The settlement has yet to receive the final approval of Judge Boulware, but both sides are confident that it will ultimately get the green light. That means payments could go out to fighters as soon as the summer of 2025, with payouts ranging from a minimum of $15,000 for some to well over $1 million for others.
For the fighters I’ve spoken with in recent weeks, the biggest question was how much money they would receive. The class includes fighters who fought in any UFC fight that either took place in or was broadcast in the United States between December 16, 2010 and June 30, 2017. Fights in other organizations — even those owned by the UFC’s parent company at the time, like Strikeforce — do not count toward a fighter’s total.
According to the plan of allocation filed by attorneys for the plaintiffs, payouts will be determined by two factors: 1) Total amount of fight-related compensation the fighters received from the UFC, and 2) total number of fights in the UFC during the class period. Compensation refers only to pay for actual fights, not identity rights or sponsorships or anything outside of competition. It does, however, include pay for performance bonuses, pay-per-view percentages, and even previously undisclosed “locker room bonuses.”
This criteria means that a fighter who fought in only one or two bouts but was well-paid for those fights (think CM Punk, though only one of his two fights came during the relevant window) might earn more than a fighter who fought in many fights at a much lower rate.
Eric Cramer, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said that once the settlement is approved there’s a plan in place for notifying eligible fighters and confirming bout and payment totals. That and other relevant information and documents are available on the class action settlement website, but the process for fighters to ensure they are among the class should be as simple as signing and dating a form.
What Cramer worries about, he said, are the inevitable interlopers that will try to convince fighters that they need the help of a manger or lawyer or some other third party to get their money.
“They will get a claim form,” Cramer said. “All they need to do is sign it and send it back. Nothing else. But there are going to be managers, there will be businesses designed to prey upon members of classes, and that’s across all kinds of industries and businesses. What we want fighters to know is they don’t need to do that. They don’t need to give away 20 percent or a third of their recovery just so somebody else can fill out a form and sign their name.”
Former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett debuted in the UFC in 2000, well before the start of the class period, then spent much of his career fighting outside the UFC. Only the last five fights of his career will count toward his settlement payout, and he’s unsure what the final total will come to.
“The idea that we have an exact way to calculate what’s exactly fair is bullsh*t,” Barnett said. “That’s not possible. But I do feel like myself and others were underpaid and exploited to a degree. I don’t necessarily mind being exploited, because when you work in entertainment, which is what this is, exploitation is the name of the game to some degree. You have to exploit your resources and they have to exploit theirs, because we’re both in it to be successful. I’m not one of these guys who thinks fighters should get everything and the UFC should get nothing.”
Several other fighters mentioned peers that are eligible for the class but nonetheless had agreed to testify on behalf of the UFC in the case. Those fighters — including former UFC champs Michael Bisping and Meisha Tate, as well as Chael Sonnen and Michael Chandler, among others — were later barred from testifying after Judge Boulware ruled that they had not been properly disclosed by the defense.
Unless they opt out of the class or decline to return signed paperwork, those fighters will still receive payouts as part of the settlement — and likely in substantial sums. That rankled some fighters, who pointed out that payouts across the board decrease with every fighter who claims his or her share.
“F*ck them,” said one fighter who asked to remain anonymous. “They wanted to work against the rest of us until it was time to write the checks. I’ve got zero respect for them.”
Former UFC lightweight title challenger Gray Maynard said he understood where that sentiment might be coming from, but offered a different perspective.
“I mean, they still got into the octagon,” Maynard said. “A lot of those people still work with the UFC. You can’t knock a person for trying to take care of their job or trying to take care of their standing (with the UFC) or whatever it is. They still got in there and got after it and probably didn’t get paid what they should have been paid, like the rest of us. So yeah, it’s tough to see that. But people have got to do what they got to do.”
Maynard also said he didn’t have any estimate as to what his payout might be. He competed in nine fights during the class period, including two UFC lightweight title fights. He has another 11 UFC fights that fall outside the class period, one of which missed the cutoff by just one week. He was among those fighters who submitted declarations to the court in favor of the settlement, some of which contained jarring statements from fighters detailing serious ongoing health issues that they believed were a result of their time in the UFC.
Former UFC heavyweight champion Fabricio Werdum, for example, wrote that he was dealing with scarring and lesions on his brain, as well as an inoperable brain cyst. Former UFC title contender Shane Carwin wrote that damage to his brain made it difficult for him to keep a job or even provide himself with basic necessities like food and shelter.
Other fighters detailed the many surgeries they’d endured, the broken bones and damaged joints, and lingering pain or disability. Some complained of worsening vision due to eye injuries. Many said they were facing future surgeries or treatments as a result of lasting damage and had neither the money nor the health insurance necessary to cover them.
These, they said, were the reasons they encouraged the court to accept the settlement. Receiving some money now to put toward health insurance or physical therapy or medical bills outweighed the possibility of more money years down the road, which was contingent on winning the lawsuit.
“They got one of those (declarations) from me too,” said Maynard. “I know people might think that the lawyers or whoever told us to make them seem bad, but when they called me they literally just asked, ‘Hey, what would you use the money for?’ It wasn’t like they scripted anything.
“I know reading through a lot of those is, look, it’s sad. But those are real problems people are dealing with. A lot of guys, they need that money now just to live.”
Former UFC lightweight Aaron Riley said he some mixed feelings about the settlement money. Despite developing a reputation as a blood-and-guts fighter who took a lot of damage during his career, he said his body seems to be holding up well these days. After retiring from MMA in 2013, he went back to school to earn degrees in history and political science. He still gets on the jiu-jitsu mats to train with friends, and mostly regards his MMA career as “a highly educational experience” that he doesn’t regret.
“I think I was kind of blissfully ignorant of a lot of stuff while I was in the UFC,” Riley said.
“Obviously, I’m happy to get that money. Who doesn’t like finding a $20 bill in an old pair of pants, right? But then you think about it and realize, well, this is kind of saying that you should have been paid a little more when you were fighting.”
That sentiment was echoed by Lawlor. He’s found success in his new career as a pro wrestler, but even that was delayed by UFC contractual restrictions, he said. He was later held in contractual limbo by a two-year suspension for a USADA anti-doping program violation in a case very similar to those that resulted in six-month suspensions later on. The UFC kept him under contract until the final two months of that suspension, only to release him just before he was eligible to return to action. All of that cost him not only money, but valuable time.
“For me personally, it feels like a little bit of vindication in that sense,” Lawlor said. “Like, I know you guys owe me more than this. I have no f*cking doubt. But this is something and I’ll take it.”
For now, Lawlor said, he’ll continue working to help inform fighters who might be eligible to receive payouts, even though he realizes that’s technically working against his own financial interests. Some fighters, he said, are harder to find than others. Their phone numbers have changed. They don’t read emails. But they’re out there, over 1,000 of them in all, and they deserve their share.
“Everybody should at least know,” Lawlor said. “It’s only fair. … I don’t know what they’ll get or how they’ll feel about it, but for me, I can tell you that at least part of it is this feeling like I got a little bit of closure.”
