Cung Le met with Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta in person to discuss signing with the UFC over egg whites at the UFC’s offices according to the released depo transcript attached to Zuffa’s Motion for Summary Judgment. His testimony reveals that he was “stuck” in his UFC contract a year and a half after he retired.
The deposition took place in April 2017 in Las Vegas at the offices of the UFC’s lawyers, Boies, Schiller & Flexner. Le testified that he negotiated his entrance into the UFC himself and was not represented by an agent or manager. He indicated that he flew to the Bay Area to Vegas on his own and made his way to the UFC offices. In the depo, he testified that he had an interest in the UFC and White and Fertitta were big fans of his from Strikeforce and when he competed on ESPN.
Exhibit 18 – Cung Le Depo by JASONCRUZ206 on Scribd
White and Fertitta had their chef cook Le egg whites and he was presented with a UFC contract. Le stated that he wanted to look it over before signing.
It appears that they were discussion of his Identity Rights in the contract. Since Le was doing movies, he was concerned about a conflict with his Zuffa contract.
Le testifies that he retired but was precluded from doing work with any other organization for a year and a half because he still had two fights left on his contract. He stated he couldn’t do commentating and was not able to negotiate with Bellator.
For a look at our summary of the deposition of Ike Epstein, click here.
Payout Perspective:
There is a portion redacted where Le goes into who he contacted prior to filing the lawsuit. It also may explain why he decided to file the lawsuit and become the named plaintiff in it. Prior to this lawsuit, he had never been involved in any other legal proceeding. The testimony on Identity Rights is interesting considering Le’s movie career and celebrity outside of the UFC. What may be helpful for his cause his his testimony that he was “stuck” for a year and a half from doing anything because he was still under UFC contract. This includes being foreclosed from doing commentary with another organization due to his contract with the UFC. Le may be a perfect plaintiff for this case since he had an established MMA career prior to the UFC, negotiated his own deal and has a career outside of MMA.
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