Zuffa filed its Motion for Summary Judgment in which it wishes to dismisses the antitrust lawsuit filed by ex-fighters. MMA Payout takes a look at some of the deposition testimony attached as exhibits to the motion. This is the first of a series.
In order to prove its case, Zuffa attaches portions of the deposition testimony it cites in its motion. The depositions are not the full transcript but small snippets of pages from the depositions. There are a portions that are redacted for the public so we cannot see the full transcript.
For instance, Sean Shelby’s deposition attached to the motion reveals nothing. The first question is visible, but the rest of the deposition is redacted. The question posed to Shelby was an Exhibit which is a text completion between “multiple parties.” One could only assume that the texts may be between Shelby and/or Dana White, Joe Silva or another UFC employee.
Depo of Sean Shelby by JASONCRUZ206 on Scribd
But, not all transcripts are like Shelby’s. For instance, UFC Executive, Ike Epstein includes some interesting testimony.
Exhibit 8 – Depo of Ike Epstein by JASONCRUZ206 on Scribd
Reason for Exclusivity
The snippets that were provided in the exhibit provide Epstein’s testimony with respect to the purpose of exclusivity provisions in athlete contracts. He testified that the UFC were “putting on 40 fights per year, and in order to put on 40 plus fights per year, you have to know that fighters are available to put on those events.” He added, “[i]f the fighters were not exclusive to us, we could never put on 40 plus events per year, and our output would significantly decrease.”
He stated that the provision was a benefit for all UFC fighters and that no one would be affected negatively by the clause. He did qualify this statement by testifying “all fighters are different.” Although lured into the trap that exclusivity prohibits fighters from finding other opportunities elsewhere, Epstein stated that the sole purpose of the provision was to ensure that the company could do 30-40 events per year. He qualified his answer to the UFC lawyer’s “narrow question” by stating that he disagreed with the “underlying assumption” in the question that assumed there were more opportunities for an athlete but for the exclusivity provision in UFC contracts.
At this point in the testimony it seems to get contentious, as the parties fight over the semantics of the questions. Here, the plaintiffs’ attorney would like Epstein to agree to the question that based on the UFC’s exclusivity provision, the fighters cannot seek opportunities to fight elsewhere. However, Epstein is wary of the trap and will not cede to this admission. He does note that the viewpoint of the question infers something that the UFC does not want to admit, but plaintiffs cannot provide. And that is that if fighters were given an opportunity to freely contract with others, they would earn more money, find more fights and/or both.
When asked by plaintiffs’ attorney Joseph Saveri whether boxing has the “same sort of exclusivity problems,” Epstein said yes.
He also agrees that most fight contracts are for 4 fights or 20 months, whichever comes first. However, some fighters have longer terms.
He also testifies about the negotiations surrounding the Gilbert Melendez contract and how they thought the matching offer given to the lightweight was unreasonable.
There is an interesting exchange where Epstein discusses the willingness to match the offer made to Cheick Kongo. However, the company decided to let the heavyweight go and he signed with Bellator.
Jakks and Round 5
Epstein is questioned about a toy deal with toy makers Jakks Pacific and Round 5.
The limited testimony addresses Round 5’s ability to sign exclusive agreements with certain fighters. Epstein notes that Round 5 was able to secure exclusive contracts to do toy deals with UFC fighters and were paid directly. Jakks Pacific had the official license to replicate UFC fighters but, for a time, were foreclosed from making certain UFC fighters due to an exclusive contract with Round 5.
In 2009, Jakks, the master toy licensee for the UFC sub-licensed with Round 5 Corp to share UFC and MMA talent in the selling and distribution of action figures. This brought all of the UFC athletes under the same umbrella and all were paid the same.
The example underscored the limited freedom that athletes had to resource other forms of revenue. Ultimately, this was consolidated within Zuffa. This testimony also related to Identity Rights for fighters.
Who is this?
There is a snippet where they discuss an individual that is hard to decipher without more information. All that can be gathered is that “he regularly reports on ratings of UFC events,” and Epstein viewed reports as “business intelligence.”
Payout Perspective:
We’ll take a look at other depo transcripts as we await the plaintiffs response to this motion. Epstein, a lawyer, understands the depo process so its no surprise that his testimony did not illicit anything of substance aside from the fact he liked Cheick Kongo.
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