Couture Concerned With UFC Antitrust Settlement

Couture is disappointed that UFC business practices will likely stay the same after a $335 million settlement with fighters ended an antitrust lawsuit against the promotion.

After a decade of delays, the long-awaited UFC antitrust lawsuit was finally set to see its day in court April 15th. The case — where fighters alleged the UFC used illegal monopsony power to prevent them from negotiating fair market value contracts — could have cost the UFC over a billion dollars and changed the way contracts were structured.

Instead, the promotion settled with fighters for $335 million, ending the case before it really got started.

While six-time UFC champion Randy Couture wasn’t one of the fighters working hand in hand with antitrust lawyers to push the case forward, he knows more than a little about the UFC’s iron grip on the sport. During a press conference to promote the PFL’s upcoming 2024 season, he shared his thoughts on the settlement.

“Obviously, three of the biggest class action law firms in the business spent the last 10 years pursuing this, so there has to be some merit there,” Couture said (via Fansided). “We know that [UFC] had a tendency to buy out anybody that was a threat or anybody that was being successful in the sport, Strikeforce on down the line. That’s the monopsony that the class action points out, and the way they do business.”

“650 athletes signed to a very exclusive restrictive contract,” he added. “There’s no transparency in the sport. We figured out the math, we know their goal was to keep the fighters on any given card to under 20 percent of the take from that fight. Show me another professional sport where that’s the case.”

“My concern is in the settlement, there’s no injunctive relief,” he said. “We’re not forcing the UFC to change the way they do business, which was what the class action set out to do. So yes, great that there’s fighters in that class and I’m in the class. We’ll see some remuneration for potential money that they lost in that period by not having a free and open transparent marketplace.

“But at the end of the day, we’re not forcing the promoters to do business any differently and that’s an issue. So it’ll be interesting to see when the courts finally stamp off because we’re all being a premature. It hasn’t been approved yet, the settlement.”

Plaintiff Nate Quarry tempered expectations when the settlement was reached, saying they didn’t get everything they wanted. Injunctive relief wouldn’t even be discussed until after a second anti-trust case covering fighters from 2017 onwards was dealt with, potentially stretching the case out for several more years.

There’s still a small chance we could see some changes included in the settlement. As Couture noted, the court must approve the deal reached between UFC and fighters. If the judge doesn’t believe it goes far enough in making fighters whole, it could be rejected.

All will be made clear in the next 30 to 45 days as lawyers hash out the final settlement paperwork. As for the money? If all is approved, fighters covered under the class action lawsuit should start receiving payments in fall 2024.