Boom!
Another antitrust class action drops against the UFC
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By Phil Davis.
Alleging fighters not under contract with them are harmed by their
monopoly stranglehold.Change is coming. pic.twitter.com/zY02uq4KM1
— Erik Magraken (@erikmagraken)
May 30, 2025
The
Ultimate Fighting Championship is going to have to start paying
its attorneys overtime at this rate.
On Friday, news broke that Phil Davis,
on behalf of himself and other fighters in his class, filed an
antitrust lawsuit against the UFC in the U.S. District Court in
Nevada. Davis is represented by the law firm of Berger Montague,
which recently settled one antitrust case with the promotion for
$375 million, with those funds paid to the fighters. It also
represents the suit helmed by Kajan
Johnson, repping another class of fighters similar to the
settled case involving Cung Le.
While those class action suits sought monetary damages, the goals
of Davis et al. are to change the nature of contracts in which the
UFC retains its fighters. If successful, the plaintiffs seek to
allow fighters to terminate their contracts with an organization
after one year. The claim is that the UFC has established an unfair
marketplace that prohibits other companies from attracting top-tier
competitors. Additionally, the suit alleges that even fighters not
under the UFC umbrella are harmed as a result of the UFC’s
anticompetitive approach.
In a press release, attorney Eric Cramer put out a statement
arguing that the UFC acted in a predatory manner to discourage
competition and trap fighters in unlawful contracts.
“The suit alleges the UFC impairs the ability of would-be UFC
competitors to attract a critical mass of top-level MMA fighters
necessary to compete with the UFC at the top tier of the sport,”
wrote Cramer.
He continued, “We intend to prove that the UFC engaged in a
predatory scheme to undermine would-be competitors to the UFC,
which the suit claims had the effect of maintaining and enhancing
the UFC’s dominance, and therefore impairing the careers and pay
not just of the UFC’s own fighters, but also of professional MMA
fighters like Mr. Davis competing for MMA promotions across the MMA
industry.”
Additionally, as reported by
MMAFighting on Friday, Misha
Cirkunov filed an antitrust lawsuit on behalf of himself and
other fighters with the goal of representing fighters with
contracts holding arbitration clauses or other waivers. These
contracts, the firm stated in the suit, delay fighters from ending
their contracts or unlawfully waive their right to be involved in
class actions against the promotion.
According to MMAFighting, the second suit reads:
“…In order to a) avoid unnecessary delay in Johnson [class
action suit], b) ensure the invalidity and unenforceability of UFC
Fighters’ arbitration agreements and class action waivers may be
adjudicated, Misha Cirkunov brings this case on behalf of those UFC
Fighters, like himself, who fought in a bout promoted by the UFC
from July 1, 2017 until the illicit scheme herein ceases, and who
signed a contract with Zuffa LLC that contained a clause purporting
to require disputes between the fighter and Zuffa to be submitted
to individual arbitration and/or a clause purporting to waive any
right to participate in a class action.”