Zuffa has sued Wanderlei Silva in the District Court of Clark County Nevada. The lawsuit alleges Silva wrote on his Facebook that the UFC fixes fights.
The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by Campbell and Williams, the law firm representing Zuffa in this matter.
A section of the complaint describes Silva’s “Campaign of Harassment Against the UFC.”
The complaint identifies a September 2014 video where he criticizes the UFC “voicing a number of rambling and baseless complaints against the organization” per the complaint. It goes on to state that it has monitored Silva’s remarks which it largely dismissed but believes he crossed the line when he proclaimed that the UFC fixes fights. The latest statement from Silva came on July 23rd when he wrote about the UFC on Facebook. He ended by stating, according to the complaint: “…fixed fights and I can prove this! I still haven’t dropped the bomb, I haven’t told everything I know!!!” (emphasis added).
The UFC then cites a second post the same day: “[a]nd I’m going to fight until the end, to unmask those promoters, that are eluding people!! And cheating taking the dignity and the honor of our sport! It’s turning into “wwe telecte!!!”…With fixed fights we have to stop Those guys since this is the end of the line for us!!!” (emphasis added). Although both posts were in Portuguese they were easy to translate.
The causes of action include Defamation Per Se and Business Disparagement. The complaint claims that Silva’s allegations of fight-fixing are “even more heinous” considering the Fertittas are linked to Nevada’s gaming industry.
Zuffa is looking for compensatory damages in excess of $10,000, punitive damages to be proven at trial as well as attorney fees and costs.
H/t: Robert Cardenas.
Payout Perspective:
To prove a claim for defamation, one has to prove a statement either spoken or written injures someone’s reputation. Here, Silva posted his thoughts about the UFC on his Facebook page. Clearly, stating that the UFC fixes fights damages the UFC’s reputation. The relevant defenses to a defamation claim are the truth and/or privilege. There are also other carveout defenses such as the alleged defamatory statement was one of opinion and there was consent to publicize the alleged defamatory statement. In this case, there is no privilege, so Silva will need to rely on what he claims he has which is information that the UFC fixes fights. The business disparagement claim is similar to prove. Essentially, there must be an injurious statement that is publicized that would discourage people from dealing with the business. Obviously, claiming the UFC fixes fights would make fans not want to buy its PPVs. As for defenses, they are similar to defamation as the accused party can claim the statement was the truth.
The UFC decided to sue Silva as its reputation and integrity was called into question. While Silva may be disgruntled about a lot of things, claiming the UFC fixes fights goes over the line. He may argue that his statements were a matter of opinion but the posts clearly indicate that the UFC allegedly fixes fights. Does Silva have proof? We will see if this case moves to discovery. At the outset, I believe Silva’s lawyers will attempt to dismiss this lawsuit prior to it getting any further. We shall see.
I believe him.
How bout you D?
We’ll know if it’s true or not really fast because if he DOES have proofs the way he claimed, Silva’s will have to pull em out real fast.
Silva has the credibility of a juicer that fled from testers.
bahahahahahah but seriously there are probably 10 fixed boxing fights going down in various places tonight around the world !!!!
Gayest, you also believe that Art Jimmerson was robbed at UFC 1 and lost because he didn’t know the rules. You are a delusional idiot.
Wandy screwed up big time! Now the UFC will bleed him dry in the court system. You don’t joke about fixes in sports. If he isn’t careful the U.S. government will get involved. They watch corruption in sports very carefully because of the gambling aspect. He sure as hell don’t want to be put under oath by the Federal government and expect his false sources to purged themselves too!
I’m sure he has lots of information about fixes, drugs, works and so forth. By the time he ends up in front of the federal government Dana white will be out of the business. And he can always take the fifth or go back to Brazil. This is a joke and the UFC is scared and will settle with him very fast! He can lie too like every other athlete has, even in front of congress. Perjury is a fucking joke and it will be very hard to prove. You girls have no clue of the game he is playing. He can just say Dana asked him to fix a fight, its his word against Dana’s PROVE IT!
Sal, you outretard yourself every time you speak. The defendants are the ones who settle you moron. The UFC is suing him, not vice-versa.
This aint Pride Wandy.
Seriously though if he’s telling the truth then good, blow that shit up. But if he was just running his mouth trying to damage the UFC then I hope they bury his ass.
“Silva has the credibility of a juicer that fled from testers.”
Add to that the mental sharpness of a man who fought with his chin for decades and has suffered numerous ridiculously nasty KOs. This is a bad idea for Wandy. He needs to get on with his life.
D is a moron and doesn’t know what leverage is, Shows what a complete idiot D is and he could be fooled by a school girl. Hey D how many girls that you never fucked told you you were the daddy of their baby?? bahahahah Of course the uFC will sue. D is so outclassed with real world knowledge and experience its sad!!!
Why was the lawsuit labeled as ‘Intentional Misconduct’. Why was it not a defamation lawsuit based on libel & slander (written and spoken)? Is it because Wanderlei’s written words were translated and can be construed as opinion and not fact? This is a little confusing, but ‘intentional misconduct’ seems to be more of a slap on the wrist than what a defamation lawsuit would entail, could you please explain?
@Logical – Not sure why it was labeled Intentional misconduct aside from the fact that the torts (causes of action) are based on the intentional doing of something. He is being sued for two things: Defamation and Business Disparagement.
Wandy’s action is defamation since it was written in a Facebook post. Libel/slander is just the category of defamation here. For purpose of clarification, libel is written defamation and slander is spoken defamation. There’s no issue re translation as asserted by Zuffa in its complaint. Wandy will need to prove that the UFC fixes fight. His “opinion” may be a defense but the problem is its clear that what he wrote can hurt the company’s business reputation. The fact he is a known person with a multitude of followers might also be a factor (i.e. Zuffa willing to sue him and could prove damages as opposed to a Joe Fan that might post the same opinion re UFC fixes fights on his Facebook.) Hope this helps.
Sal, you still don’t understand what that means you moron. THE UFC IS SUING HIM!! NOT VICE-VERSA!!! There is no settlement on their end, unless he counter sues them. WOW! How fucking retarded are you.
Jason, does the fact he claimed to have proof kill his defense of it being his opinion? If he made the statement they fix fights. They he could easily say its his opinion. But when he claims to have proof. Well proof really isn’t relative. It is either proof or not(to be determined by a court). If his “proof” was not proof or found to be a lie. Wouldn’t that effect the perception of his claims? It would show he lied about proof to strength the credibility of his lie about Fixed fights and to cause as much damage to the UFC as possible.
It seems his fate will lay in the hands of what his proof is. But I think he would have been much better off if he never claimed to have had proof. Unless of course he really does have proof. Which f course I doubt. Because he was to worked up to have had proof and not tell the world what it was. I don’t think he would have sat on that information, DO you think his claims of proof changes things?
D let me explain it, Silva says something that may or may not be true, either way it makes the UFC look bad, they cant prove it is true and they cant prove its a lie, THEY SUE HIM TO TRY TO MAKE HIM SHUT THE FUCK UP!!! SOMETHING YOU SHOULD TRY!!! THE UFC NOW HAS EQUAL LEVERAGE BECAUSE SILVA CANT AFFORD TO DEFEND HIMSELF! SILVA EITHER SHUTS UP OR THEY MAKE A SIDE DEAL SO IT GOES AWAY!! YOU ARE A FUCKING JUNIOR LOSER CLOWN WHO STILL GETS BITCH SLAPPED BY KIDS YOUNGER THEN YOU> I WOULD SLAP YOU SO HARD YOUR MOTHER WOULD SHIT BLOOD YOU PUSSY FUCK!
Sal, let me explain it moron, the way you worded it: ” This is a joke and the UFC is scared and will settle with him very fast! ” is very clear that your point was you thought they were attempting to settle out of court to cave in, like a defendant would who was in fear of losing the suit.
Sal, you are a 50 year old pathetic retard, who’s mother was a prostitute with down syndrome that spawned the ultimate retarded mutant. You shit in your diapers from your diabetic-induced wheel chair while you rant like a crazy person all day on mmapayout. You are incoherent at best, you never form any logical thought or provide rational argument and in your world the sky isn’t blue and 2+2 =5. You fucking freak!
Wandy continues to dig himself a bigger hole. But seeing how Wandy is probably broke, nothing will come out of this accept for some apologies.
How is he broke? He has made many millions in the UFC alone even though he didn’t have much success. I think it was reported he had made 10 million since coming to the UFC. If he is broke he has some serious issues!