“These Class Representatives filed the lawsuit not only for themselves but also seek to represent about 1,200 other current and former UFC fighters. One of their goals is to recover money for all 1,200 fighters. Another goal is to force the UFC to change the way it does business.”<\/em><\/p>\nThe UFC’s Payment Structure for Fighters<\/h2>\n
Major sporting leagues, like the NBA and NFL, pay players nearly 50% of their profits. In comparison, fighters get just 14% of the UFC’s current profits, less than half of the 40% it paid in the early 2000s. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, fellow MMA organizers Strikeforce paid more than 63% of its earnings, and Bellator paid 45%. <\/p>\n
The UFC treats fighters as independent contractors, meaning fighters receive no salary or benefits. They only earn when they fight. <\/p>\n
Fighters are also responsible for training, skill maintenance, and health insurance expenses.<\/p>\n
The Nature of UFC Fighters’ Contracts <\/h2>\n
Aside from paying fighters per fight, the UFC still controls players through its rules. <\/p>\n
UFC fighters cannot compete in other MMA company events. Their choice of clothes, words, and merchandise gains also depend on the UFC. <\/p>\n
For example, Reebok partners with the UFC, and fighters must wear only Reebok apparel during fights. Meanwhile, the UFC gets the sponsorship money and determines the fighters’ cut. <\/p>\n
The UFC also blocked the fighters’ attempt at unionizing, citing that they are independent contractors under Federal laws.<\/p>\n
The UFC’s Defence<\/h2>\n
The UFC claimed that its business policies help promote competition. It insisted that the fighters’ contracts help produce better-quality fights. High-quality fights mean more viewers, which results in higher pay for fighters. <\/p>\n
What the Fighters Want <\/h2>\n
According to their lawsuit website, the initial demands of the 1200 fighters have two goals: to get the fighters their money back and to make the UFC change to favorable business practices. <\/p>\n
The fighters seek employee rights and benefits while under contract like their counterparts in other sports. They also want the right to unionize. <\/p>\n
They want fairer contracts that guarantee a better revenue split and request a standardized code of conduct that protects their interests.<\/p>\n
Impact of the Class action on the UFC<\/h2>\n
For the UFC, victory at the trials wouldn’t have impacted anything significant. <\/p>\n
However, if the reverse had been the case, it would have changed many things in MMA. The fighters wanted close to $1.6 billion from the UFC. Demands are tripled in antitrust lawsuits, meaning the damages could have been nearly $5 billion. <\/p>\n
The UFC’s contract format would likely have been affected by court orders on contract length and deal exclusivity. <\/p>\n
While many uncertainties surround how the settlement will progress, the results could kickstart a revolution in the UFC and the MMA industry. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Latest Development in the Case In a twist, the TKO group, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ‘s parent company, has agreed to a $335 million payment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":199,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"UFC $1.6 Billion Antitrust Lawsuit | Notorious247\u00a0\u00a0","_seopress_titles_desc":"Latest twist in the UFC antitrust lawsuit: TKO Group agrees $335 million settlement with fighters. Explore the origins, fighters' demands, and impact on the UFC","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197,"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions\/197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.notorious247.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}