I was kind of delighted to see that UFC's anti-trust lawsuit that was largely about fighter pay to come to a sort of conclusion in the past month. This legal battle has been going on for nearly a decade and has around 1000 ex fighters in the class-action lawsuit... or whatever it is called. They are the primary people listed in what I have to imagine is an absolutely massive stack of documents that are bound to be involved in a trial that has been going on this long.
I was happy until I read into it and realized what I already should have known and that is that this is likely one of those lawsuits that was never really about justice for the fighters but about making a law-firm that has deep enough pockets to take on a 10 year legal battle a ton of money. While there is no disclosure, it is estimated that whatever the payout ends up being, around at least 1/3 of the overall money is going to the lawyers.
While the settlement hasn't been finalized, because I guess lawyers love to drag things out as long as possible. The total payout for the zero-trial amount as it stands now is an estimated $375 million. $260 million will be going to the fighters that are listed as plaintiffs.
People, and sometimes even me, like to point the finger at Dana White for why this was all happening. Honestly, years ago he probably was the main driving force behind poor fighter pay but before we pass judgement on the now very wealthy White, we need to keep in mind that UFC faced a massive uphill battle in the 80's and 90's hell, even the early 2000's as far as becoming mainstream was concerned. In its early days it was considered illegal and it wasn't until just this year that countries as democratic as France even legalized its practice at all. Dana and his early partners are likely the main, if not the ONLY reason why we have MMA in the way that we know it today. He saved a dying industry and turned it into the massive billions upon billions of dollars enterprise that it is today. Is it really any surprise after facing financial ruin on countless occasions that he would want a lion's share of the money for himself?
Now I am not excusing the man entirely, because to quote Forrest Gump "Mama said that a man only needs so much money, the rest is just for showin' off" and Dana entered "showin' off" money a long time ago while he was fully aware of the fact that many of his past fighters and most of the current ones were living in relative poverty and he didn't really do much to change that. The altruist is never good at business, as the saying goes.
The long-winded point I am trying to make now is that while he may have gotten the wheels turning, the state of affairs in UFC today are not entirely up to him. Remember how not that long ago they were going to hire Vince McMahon as the President of Zuffa Inc thereby technically making the WWE boss Dana White's boss as well? I'm saying there are more parts of the puzzle here than just the one man. Zuffa inc is a huge company with thousands of employees and likely dozens of people who are actually calling the shots that are not named Dana.
The fighters claim to poor pay is well-documented. The UFC pays less than 20% of revenue (or did in the past, this is changing for the better, albeit slowly) while other professional sports organizations such as NFL, NHL, and MLB regularly pay around 50% of all revenue to players. Hell, the WNBA gives away money they aren't making at all to players but that is a different story.
I'm happy that these old fighters are going to be getting something but let's not dilute the situation there. I would imagine if the lawyers hadn't looked at this situation and though to themselves that they could put $100 million in their own pockets, we wouldn't even be hearing about this. That in a shell is one of the many problems with the US justice system. Even if you are totally in the right, if you don't have millions upon millions of dollars to stake your claim, you may as well just shout at a wall. Just ask Mark Hunt!