Former UFC fighters Gabe Ruediger and Mac Danzig are the latest to file a lawsuit in the Antitrust class action in the San Jose Division of the Northern District of California. Captioned Ruediger et al v. Zuffa, LLC, the Complaint dated February 4th mirrors the other 3 lawsuits previously filed by the other former UFC fighters.
A new law firm has emerged on behalf of the Plaintiffs, the Philadelphia-based Spector Roseman Kodroff & Willis, P.C. appears to have its hand in representing Ruedigger and Danzig although the pleadings were signed by attorney Joseph Saveri.
Bloody Elbow has obtained the lawsuit and you can find it here.
If you’ll notice, the paginations in this lawsuit are slightly off and seem to indicate a cut and paste into the pleadings. The observation is neither here nor there, it’s just an observation.
Ruediger was a part of TUF 5 and fought with the UFC in 2006. After time away, he had two more fights in the UFC in August 2010 and February 2011 (specifically 4 years ago as of the date of this writing). He also fought in the WEC. His last fight was in May 2013 for the Bamma USA organization.
Danzig is a recognizable name as you may recall he was the TUF Season 6 winner back in 2007 and had a long career with the organization. You may recall he fought on a UFC on Fox 9 event without taking any money from sponsors. He announced his retirement from fighting early last year. Danzig was critical of the UFC in an interview with MSNBC this past January.
Payout Perspective:
Ruediger and Danzig are names that many UFC fans can recognize as the number of fighters joining the lawsuit increases. Danzig is an interesting addition to the lawsuit as he seems like an articulate individual with definite opinion. As previously reported, Zuffa is seeking to transfer the lawsuit to Nevada. Also, the Plaintiffs have sent subpoenas to YouTube and Twitter to obtain the accounts of several key UFC employees.
MMA Payout will keep you posted.
Great scam! Sign a contract and get paid and then when your career is over you go back and try to extort more when you realize you were very unsuccessful at your chosen profession. Danzig was always a C level fighter. Him getting the luck of the draw and getting into a TUF with poor talent around him was his only accomplishment. He made a lot of money doing very little and having zero fan base and bring in no revenue to his employer.
I would say many of these fighters are just being opportunists, but the truth is, some change needs to be made from the UFC. They became too drunk with power. The whole Fitch debacle with the likeness, the champion’s clause where they have the fighter’s by their balls, black balling fightters, etc. I don’t think the pay is really the big issue, but the manipulation is more of a problem.
OMG I agree with both D and BS lol
I will almost never side with fighters as long as they keep going down the same road they have been. With the exception of a very few. All of them act like hypocrites. When they are fighting and it benefits them they are promoting the sport and talk a big game. As soon as it no longer lines their wallet they do everything in their power to destroy the sport. Its fine to tell fans to support the sport but they don’t give a shit about it.
I do think Dana jumped the gun and got a little over emotional during the Fitch issue with game rights. But I completely understand his position. For the UFC, the sport of MMA, and even the fighters. IT was important to have some unity and come out with a good product. Many fans are made for the UFC and the fighters from those video games. The sport and the UFC could have taken a hug hit if a rival video game with a rival promotion signed up all the ufc fighters. The Rival was never going to sell like the UFC game and the UFC game would have been shit and might have killed off any video game deal in its tracks. For Fitch to think he can hold the UFC and the sport Hostage for his own gain and think the UFC cant d anything to him was a very poor decision. The first in a long time of poor business decisions by Fitch.
A house divided can not stand. As soon as the sport gains momentum. Rivals promotions and the sports own fighters start tearing it apart. There is a right and wrong way to do business and negotiate deals. But don’t play hard ball and cry when the UFC plays rough back.
The biggest problem fighters have is they think the UFC brand value is their own value. When they leave the UFC they realize how big a mistake it was. Selling 500,000 buys in the UFC doesn’t mean you, as a fighter, can sell 500,000. The brand of the UFC and how they do things and being a part of the “league” they created is a big part of the PPV buys they get. IT why people no longer care about a fighter when he leaves and why a rival promotion cant match the UFC. Because he doesn’t bring those sales with him. THe UFC pays above market value for everyone. That’s why they are able to sign them in the first place.
BS,
You just presented a great argument for fighter unity, aka, Union 😉
http://www.mmamania.com/2015/2/5/7985977/report-ufc-183-ppv-buy-estimate-for-silva-vs-diaz-is-looking-strong
Another strong ppv showing. Sal, let me know how you want to spin this one. Hahaha.
D, UFC 183 should be strong! However the worlds best pfp fighter, making his comeback, can’t even sell out a show in vegas on super bowl weekend. Funny how the UFC has stopped reporting comp tickets for the events, tells me and anyone else who knows the bizz that they are giving a lot away. They are also counting boxes and casino and sponsor comps as full sale tickets. If 183 is less then a million it shows that the UFC basically has severely lost it ppv juice. What does the rest of the year look like for the UFC? Maybe Rousey can sell 500k if she fights Cyborg, Cm punk? maybe they can get a steroid cage match going lol
Sal, they did a solid gate, but regardless the gate is a fraction of what the ppv brings in. This fight was a major success and you didn’t expect it to hit this level of buys. To expect a non title fight to hit a million buys is absurd. Mayweather didn’t even hit a million buys in 3 out of his last 4 fights. A million buys in this ppv climate for any sport is a big number.
Just admit you were dead wrong once again.
The rest of the year?
Aldo vs McGregor is going to be big. Connor knows how to sell a fight. I know it is 145, but it is still going to sell big.
Weidman-Belfort
Jones- Johnson
Velasquez- Werdum
That is just what we know for now, more big fights may turn up. Who would have thought McGregor was going to turn into such a big seller? This is how the sport works.
MGM capacity is 16800, 3 k short of your make believe, fictitious sold out gate. Try again! Besides a promoter can call anything a sellout you jock strap, boxing does it all the time, try looking up capacities you retard. Mcgregor might be a decent ppv but we don’t know, that weight class sucks as a draw and McGregor hasn’t sold shit unless its FREE! All the other fights you list are fights that need to happen but most likely wont do to injuries or other nonsense. Floyd smokes any UFC fighter with total ppv buys and has made more money then all the UFC fighters combined for the last decade. Wait till gate and ppv numbers come out in the lawsuit, a lot of you guys will be very surprised as to how much the UFC lies!
Sal, you have reverted back to your world of retard. I never called this a sellout, not once. My point was the gate did solid numbers and the ppv did very well which proved your dumbass wrong for like the 10 millionth time.
Yes, McGregor isn’t a sure thing, but it certainly seems like he is going to be a big ppv hit.
Your rant about Mayweather is false and doesn’t address what I stated about him.
You are saying the ppv numbers are exaggerated now from guys like Meltzer? Dana White doesn’t like Meltzer at all because he releases legit numbers. The Kevin Iole numbers are the fakes, not Meltzer.
You are an idiot.
That isn’t a case for a Union JM. Top fighters would get even less. In a Union you think the fighters are going to let Star fighters wear their sponsor in the cage and cut them out of their share of advertising profits? Also who gets in this union? Every joe blow the UFC brings up to be a feeder? You think top fighters or even mid level veterans want guys who flopped out of the UFC in 3 fights taking a cut of their money and sharing in their benefits?
Does the fighters really want to take away the incentive of the UFC to run this big machine and make these fighters into stars? DO they really want to stale mate the sport and bleed the money from the company the UFC is using to expand and make them more than local stars?
Other sports have massive tv deals and get mainstream media coverage around the clock that keeps leagues like the NFL from needing to send huge sums of money to promote their product. The UFC and the fighters NEED someone to spend this money or the events are huge fails.
Sal, just FYI, one of the sections at the MGM grand was removed to make room for booths for Fox, ESPN and what I assume was a Brazilian channel. I’m not sure what the capacity of the MGM was on fight night, but it would have to be less than the max.
D, I think you’re right that the UFC is somewhat bringing this lawsuit on themselves by the high-handed way they are dealing with fighters and management. It doesn’t help that Dana insults fighters all the time. I leaves a bad taste in fighters’ mouths and causes resentment.
With that said, I’m not sure what merit the lawsuit truly has.
It should also be noted that lawsuits in boxing – against managers and promoters and between managers and promoters – are pretty much an everyday occurrence.
Diego, I would say they still have a case though, because of the buying up of other companies consistently which eliminates competition, blackballing fighters, using many dirty tactics to prevent competition is typically seen as monopolistic. Considering who is taking up the case- a group that defeated Google, I’m guessing the UFC is going to have to alter many of their policies and settle or face a very prolonged and expensive court battle.
More problems for the ufc hahaha
Yes, my error on D’s statement on sold out. I agree McGregor could very well be the next big ppv star or even the next GSP, but Aldo, one of the best pfp, cant sell shit at that weight class, so they have an up hill battle imo. YES I am saying all ppv numbers, gate numbers and TV numbers are exaggerated, guessed, rounded, and even straight up lied about. Please prove me wrong with actual documents that are submitted for tax purposes. Anyone can say anything and this goes for Boxing as well. The UFC has never opened its books so it all could be bullshit, and we all know that they lie on a daily bases on little things so we are suppose to believe them on big things? Also any information a third party gets is questionable as far as accuracy goes but its all we got. The UFC will fight and drag this out and try to settle out of court so they wont have to reveal sensitive info about their numbers. Its stupid to bring up floyd he’s the exception to the rule and cant be compared to any mma fighter or most of the promotions for that matter.
You are challenging the numbers from a source that doesn’t get along well with the UFC. He has cable contacts that he gets that info from, just like Rafael does who was in a twitter war with Espinoza over it. Those guys are unbiased whether you like it or not.