Less than a month before the scheduled April 15 start date for the main trial, TKO Group Holdings, of which the UFC is a part, agreed to settle the claims and pay the plaintiffs $335 million.
“We are pleased to have reached an agreement to settle all claims asserted in the class action lawsuits, bringing the litigation to a close and benefiting all parties,” reads an official UFC statement. “The final terms of the settlement agreement will be submitted to the court for approval.”
Five separate class action lawsuits filed between December 2014 and March 2015 were eventually consolidated into one, with a second separate lawsuit filed in 2021. The lawsuits sought damages totaling $1.6 billion, as well as structural changes to the UFC’s current contracts. It is not yet known if the latter terms are part of the terms of the settlement agreement.
The plaintiff group was led by former UFC fighters Kang Lee, Brandon Vera, Kagen Johnson and Kyle Kingsbury.