On Monday, the parties in the UFC lawsuit filed a supplemental settlement plan which they hope will be approved by Judge Boulware.
The new plan emphasizes that the money will be “life changing” for the fighters and the settlement is “far superior” in comparison to other antitrust lawsuits. It would distribute 90% of the $335 million recovery to the Le Class and 10% to the Johnson Settlement Class. “The Revised Plan ensures that the Le Class members would recover through the Settlement over 30% of the total amount of single damages available to them at trial,” states the brief.
The biggest change is the allocation of the settlement money will be a split of 90% going to the Le class and 10% going to the Johnson class. Previously, the split was 75/25. The minimum recovery for Le Claimants would be $10,000 instead of $8,000. The Johnson Claimants without arbitration clauses would receive $6,000 instead of $7,000 and the flat recovery for those with arbitration agreements would be $3,000 instead of $5,000.
The justification for the reallocation is based on four reasons.
The brief breaks it down even further of the 1,500 fighters
454 fighters will receive total net allocation of more than $100,000 each
226 fighters will receive in excess of $200,000 each
143 fighters will receive in excess of $300,000 each
104 fighters will receive in excess of $40,000 each
86 fighters will received in excess of $500,000 each
67 fighters will receive in excess of $600,000 each
54 fighters will receive in excess of $700,000 each
46 fighters will receive in excess of $800,000 each
41 fighters will receive in excess of $900,000 each
36 fighters will receive in excess of $1 million
Every fighter Le will receive at least $13,000 including fighters that just have one fight.
In sum, the Le class would receive a total net recovery of approximately $193.5 million which represents “approximately 35 percent of total Event Compensation.” The Johnson Settlement Class would receive a total net recovery of $21.5 million which would represent “almost 15 percent of total Event Compensation.” “The average recovery by the Johnson Settlement Class would be over $25K and the typical (median) recovery would be over $13,000 per Fighter.
The brief also draws comparisons to other antitrust cases that have gone to trial and that have settled which highlights why this settlement is superior to others.
Payout Perspective:
Judge Boulware will have to approve of the settlement but this supplement provides some granular information on the payouts and the money provided to each fighter in either class. The biggest takeaway is that they gave more money to the Le class than they did for Johnson and provided some rationale. It is worthy to note that the briefing provides clear signs that fighters are receiving a bulk of the settlement money. It points out that 36 fighters within the Le class will receive over $1 million which has to be considered by Judge Boulware if/when he decides to sign off on the plan. MPO will continue to follow.
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