In January, Mark Hunt filed a lawsuit against Zuffa, Dana White and Brock Lesnar from his loss at UFC 200 to the returning WWE star and subsequent revelation that Lesnar tested positive for a banned substance on the UFC anti-doping policy.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nevada, was unique as it included allegations of civil violations of the RICO Act as well as a claim for negligence and breach of contract. In most instances, a plaintiff cannot claim both tort damages and from those arising for a contract. Here, Hunt was claiming because the UFC allowed Lesnar to fight with the knowledge that he may have been taking steroids, any injury arising from the fight should be treated as a personal injury.
Serving Lesnar the lawsuit, a requisite in civil litigation, was a difficult task and he was not served until March. Howard Jacobs represents Lesnar in this lawsuit.
In May, the Court heard the defendants’ Motion to Dismiss. We took a deep dive into the hearing as the transcript was made available to the public. The Court allowed the lawsuit to stand but left it open for the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint as it highlighted at the hearing, that certain claims such as the RICO claims were speculative.
Yet, in Hunt’s First Amended Complaint, he included the RICO cause of action. As with the first Complaint, The Defendant’s filed another Motion to Dismiss, this time, to dismiss the First Amended Complaint.
The Defendants had hoped that they could stay discovery pending the result from the Court of the Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint. However, the Court has ordered that discovery may commence related to all of Hunt’s claims except his RICO allegations.
The plot to this lawsuit continued as Hunt fought for the company he was suing in March of this year. He lost via KO at UFC 209 to Alistair Overeem. This past fall, he made more news when he wrote an article for a web site where he admitted memory loss and slurring his words. The UFC took Hunt off the UFC Fight Night 121 card in November when it learned of the article. This incensed Hunt but White stood his ground in citing that he needed to be checked out to be cleared to fight.
Hunt recently requested that he supplement his First Amended Complaint to include facts about how he believes he was unjustly taken off of UFC Fight Night 121 in Australia. Likely, the UFC will deny allegations of wrongdoing and will cite taking him off the card as a precautionary measure and they were willing to have him checked out to ensure he was healthy enough to fight.
This is a unique lawsuit that has not trial date and thus the ending is open. The curious thing is that Hunt remains a fighter for the company and one of the highest paid non-champions on the roster. It will be interesting to see what information might be pulled from discovery that would put the UFC in a false light but I am sure that what items might be pulled will yield to a settlement between the parties. If not, we could be heading toward a very contentious court battle.
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