The UFC anti-trust lawsuit became a well-discussed topic in 2023. The court documents show how much Conor Mcgregor, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar, and Jon Jones were paid in the 2010s. The current status of the lawsuit remains unknown. Initially, TKO Group Holdings agreed to pay $335 million to settle the lawsuit.
The situation of Rousey, Lesnar, and Jones remains unknown. Moreover, Conor McGregor was set to notoriously bank around $7 million off of a proposed UFC anti-trust settlement. However, as it turns out, he’d have missed out on millions more because of a UFC contractual legal waiver.
The “Le vs. Zuffa” Class Action Anti-trust ended with a $335 million settlement fee. After the settlement, a bevy of fighters, including McGregor, would have banked much in suppressed wages. The Irishman will only receive additional compensation for his fights from 2014-2017 due to a legally questionable arbitration clause added to his contract at some point.
The proposed settlement represents approximately 20% of his entire UFC earnings for the time. From 2017-2020, Conor McGregor fought Floyd Mayweather, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Donald Cerrone. For that period, he only nets a flat fee of $3,000. UFC anti-trust lawsuit case expert John Nash reels in the deeds.
Conor McGregor to be underpaid in anti-trust windfall?
In his special two-part “Hey Not The Face” Podcast; What Every Fighter Should Know about the Antitrust Settlement, pt. 1 | Ep. 65 — Nash was the first to detail how McGregor could end up making in excess of $6M; even seven. Today, Nash estimates that up to 85 percent of the $1 billion paid to fighters between 2017 and 2020 went to those under new contracts who are not eligible for pay raises.
In the intervening years, the UFC has added a legal waiver to its contracts that prevents its fighters from participating in class-action lawsuits. The result: only 10 percent of the $215 million left over after lawyers take their cut goes to fighters in the 2017-2020 class.
Conor McGregor (Source: express.co.uk)Fighters on the active roster between 2010 and 2017 who had ballot appearances after that did not make the cut. Nash weighs in on the “Conor McGregor” part of it all:
There’s no way you get an amount that small if fighters didn’t sign waivers, the very top guys…So, you’re asking, does Conor McGregor get the money? He should get about 10 percent of whatever he earned in the [2017-2020] period. But, it seems very likely that he might get the amount that all the people that signed the waiver get, which is $3,000.
Reporter John Nash via “Hey Not The Face” Podcast; Is the UFC antitrust case headed to trial after all? | Ep. 77
While unlikely, McGregor could opt out of the 2017-2020 class so he can use that arbitration clause in his favor. The process does bilk out thousands of dollars; going into arbitration, though, a debate can be made of how much more the UFC really owes him.
After his recent pullout, and with just two fights left in his contract, the management might just slow-pay Conor McGregor, offering him just a flat fee for his 2017-2020 period ballot appearances. Would he contest his biggest partners before his big return? There’s always the ballistic option – go free agent and hop on to BKFC. The Irishman has been garnering some rivalry for that already.
