On June 11th, Judge Richard Boulware of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada signed an order which would consolidate all of the cases in the Zuffa Antitrust Lawsuit.
Earlier this month, the U.S. District Court in Northern California determined that the venue of the lawsuit filed by Cung Le and several other former-UFC fighters should be transferred to Zuffa’s home district of Las Vegas, Nevada. As a result, the five lawsuits filed by the former fighters were sent to federal court in Las Vegas. However, the cases had not been consolidated by one judge which resulted in the initial set up of having multiple judges handling several cases.
Judge Boulware, who was assigned the Le case, indicated in his June 11th order that the presiding District Judges determined that the actions are related and “there is good cause to consolidate them under the same District Court Judge and Magistrate Judge.” The order stated that neither party opposed the consolidation.
According to a Las Vegas Review-Journal article, Senator Harry Reid proposed Judge Boulware to the bench to the White House. Of course, Senator Reid is (or was) a big supporter of the UFC. This should not play into how Judge Boulware conducts the trial but there it is for everyone to speculate.
Payout Perspective:
I don’t believe anyone was surprised by this ruling and it makes sense. Judge Richard Boulware will preside over the legal battle between the former UFC fighters and Zuffa. He was appointed to the federal bench by President Obama in 2014. He is a graduate of Harvard and Columbia Law School. Prior to joining the bench Judge Boulware was a trial attorney for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Las Vegas and in New York. He also served as law clerk with Judge Denise Cote of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York after graduating from law school.
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