14 Key Details About The Class Action Lawsuit Against UFC

14. The Fighters Named With The Suit Are...

Jon Fitch, Nate Quarry, and Cung Le. Fitch and Quarry are former UFC fighters. Quarry is retired, but has been very vocal about the issue of fighter pay. In particular, he spoke out against the UFC's deal with Reebok. You can read his full statement on the page linked, but here's an excerpt:

The UFC further continuing their stranglehold over the fighters. Why? They don€™t have enough money to actually pay their athletes above welfare wages? Will the money trickle down? Has it so far? How many checks have the random fighters gotten from €œofficial€ UFC sponsors? None? No Harley Davidson checks? No checks from the supplement sponsors? €œBut Nate, NBA players don€™t get to put random sponsors on their team jerseys.€ Good point. But it€™s that of a child. Please shut up and be quiet. NBA players CAN and DO make shoe deals The NBA tried to squash that, fining Michael Jordan every time he wore his Nikes. Nike paid the fines. Why didn€™t Jordan get cut from the Bulls? Because he€™d go to the Lakers and make just as much money. Hard to do when you€™re working for a monopoly. (Fortunately some organizations are flourishing off UFC€™s bad business ideals.)

It is well worth reading Quarry's full statement on the matter. Fitch, meanwhile, is a former UFC title contender who lost to Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight belt a few years back. His style was well known to be a cure for insomnia, and he was making mid-to-high money by UFC standards, so he was cut from the company. According to Dana White, Fitch made about $300,000 discretionary bonuses during his UFC run, but Fitch broke those numbers down in a video he posted to Youtube, saying he was actually paid $1,022,000 in total for 18 fights:

Sounds like a lot of money, but let€™s look at that a little bit closer. Out of the 18 fights in that fight purse, I paid 20 percent of that to management and the gym. So if you take that number, divide it by seven-and-a-half years, I was making roughly $176,000 a year before management and gym fees.

That's also before tax. And remember, this is a guy who was in the top ten of his division, who had challenged for a title. When Fitch was released Dana White claimed it was because he was on the "downside of his career" - but it created a stink in the hardcore MMA fan community. Even if you don't like his style, Fitch is a good fighter. He went and signed with the WSOF, and challenged for their welterweight title over the weekend, losing to Rousimar Phalares. That loss brought him to 2-2 since his UFC release. There's at least one other big wrinkle with Jon Fitch in this lawsuit, but that will be covered later. Which leaves us with Cung Le, the sole "active" fighter involved in the suit. Front Row Brian, a noted insider who posts on Twitter, claimed that there would be three fighters involved in the suit well in advance of the press conference, and that one would be "semi-active" - well, seems he was right. Le has just one fight since 2012 and that was a devastating loss to Michael Bisping in August that came with a bungled drug test in which he was possibly painted as a cheat without cause. His drug test, handled by the UFC via a lab they hired as there was no athletic commission where the fight was held, came back positive for high levels of HGH - a naturally occurring substance in the body that increases during intense physical activity. You know, like a fight, or intense training for a fight. The lab did not perform the tests required to discover if the HGH was naturally occurring or not, and not only that, they did not keep a "B" sample of Le's blood/urine, meaning no second test could be performed. Le was, understandably, extremely upset at the incident. He was initially suspended, though that was lifted. He sought out a public apology, though none was forthcoming, at least not to the extent he was looking for. Is his inclusion here sour grapes? Le was paid extremely well for a non-title contender in the UFC, at UFC 139 alone picking up $420,000 (including a Fight of the Night bonus).