As first reported by John Nash, UFC and the fighters in the Cung Le lawsuit have reached a settlement agreement for the second time in the anti-trust lawsuit brought on over ten years ago.
As per the new terms of the agreement, fighters who fought after 2010, but prior to 2016, would receive $375 million, to be paid out in an "agreed upon period of time" by the company. A previous settlement agreement called for $335 million to be distributed to fighters in both the Cung Le suit and a subsequent suit referred to as the Kayjan Johnson lawsuit involving fighters who fought after 2016.
The presiding justice, Judge Boulware, rejected the first settlement offer, feeling that the amount was too low relative to the amount of money sought by both sets of plaintiffs and also felt that the settlements should be separate. This decision was not received well by either the plaintiffs or the defendants, with many fighters going public with their displeasure.
The fear on the part of the fighters is that if the case did go to trial, there is no guarantee they would win. Even if they did win, the case could easily go to appeal, with the judge's rejection of the settlement agreement being a partial basis for that, and they might not win on appeal. There is also the fear that it could go all the way to the Supreme Court, which could potentially throw the case out.
For UFC, the worry was that a jury could be sympathetic to the fighters and award them multiple times the agreed upon settlement. Damages sought were over $1 billion from the Cung Le lawsuit alone and with treble damages, could go over $3 billion.
Most of the fighters involved with the suit would have received over $100,000 as per the terms of the previous settlement. With this higher amount for the Cung Le lawsuit alone, that amount would obviously be higher although exact terms have not been announced yet. At least one prominent ex-fighter went public with his feelings following today's news.
From former UFC top 15 light heavyweight, and current professional wrestler Tom Lawlor in a post on X
Judge Boulware, I know you are somewhere reading this tweet right now, I need you to approve the new settlement. Thank you.
— “Filthy” Tom Lawlor (@FilthyTomLawlor) September 26, 2024
The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Eric Cramer, also released this statement on Thursday (from John Nash's X account):
The judge's decision whether or not to accept this offer should come within the next few weeks.
