Judge Richard Boulware denied UFC’s Motion to Dismiss the antitrust lawsuit brought by former UFC fighters at a hearing in the U.S. District Court of Nevada Friday. The lawsuit will continue with the parties hammering out a process to conduct discovery.
The UFC provided a statement after the Friday afternoon hearing:
The United States District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada held a hearing on UFC’s motion to dismiss today. The Court correctly explained that on a motion to dismiss it must consider all the factual allegations in the complaint as true, and the complaint must be liberally construed in favor of the plaintiffs. Using that standard, the Court denied the motion to dismiss. As we have consistently stated, UFC competes in a lawful manner that benefits athletes around the world and has created a premier organization in the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). We look forward to proving that the allegations in the complaint are meritless.
BE’s Paul Gift provided a running commentary on the courtroom arguments. As the moving party (i.e., UFC’s motion to dismiss), it was the UFC’s burden to prove that the plaintiffs’ motion failed to state a claim for which relief could be granted.
Almost in anticipation that the motion would be denied, the parties filed a Joint Status Report on Friday which outlines the status of the case. There’s no trial date as of yet as the parties continue to map out discovery which will probably entail a voluminous amount of documents. It appears that the parties will quarrel over the amount of information to be produced (a standard that occurs in almost every lawsuit).
Payout Perspective:
Good news for the plaintiffs but not a monumental loss for the UFC. Although people watching this case may see the court’s denial of the motion to dismiss as a huge precedent victory, the plaintiffs are not out of the woods yet. As we’ve discussed (and maybe someone actually reading this has followed), the Motion to Dismiss was just a standard part of the litigation playbook. Thus far, the UFC has succeeded in transferring the case to Vegas and the parties are grappling over discovery issues. At some point, the UFC will once again attempt to dismiss the case on a Motion for Summary Judgment.
But, the plaintiffs will get a chance to probe UFC documents and potentially depose some UFC officials. This may reveal some information that may help their case as well as paint the UFC in a bad light. We shall see.
MMA Payout will keep you posted.
Hahaha…open books real ppv numbers and marketing spending of the UFC will be exposed…
Yeah, the real ppv numbers have been exposed by Dave Meltzer, unlike boxing which is rarely fact checked.
Ha ha ha. The UFC has just recorded a new ticket sales low in Japan. After all the publicity stunts and the hyped BS, you’d expect the UFC to sell more. After all, it is the ULTIMATE fighting championship, is it not?
The more bad things we learn about the UFC, the more desperate and aggressive its nuthuggers get. Ima get me some pop corn and soda because we’re in for quite a show now that the lawsuit filed against the UFC will continue.
D nobody said nothing about boxing, UFC has been cooking the books for years with their bogus buy rates lol. time to see the truth and see about that fat loan they have too.
FF, you can’t read. As I pointed out, Dave Meltzer releases the real numbers, its just a shame no one fact checks boxing promotion’s lies about ppv buys.
Troll boy can’t accept the reality that he is a complete idiot.