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Attorneys in UFC Anti-Trust Lawsuit Issue Cease-and-Desist Order to MMAAA

December 7, 2016 | Posted by Jeremy Thomas
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Attorneys for the fighters suing the UFC in an anti-trust lawsuit have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the MMA Athletes Association, accusing them of trying to take profits out of a potential settlement. MMAjunkie reports that a letter sent to MMAAA advisor Bjorn Rebney as well as legal counsel Jim Quinn and CAA agent Mike Fonseca claims they’re trying to undermine a the class-action lawsuit for their own settlement.

“As we both know – but which you have failed to disclose publicly – you, your investors, and your legal team had previously sought to be included in our efforts to prosecute the UFC class action – as long as you and your investors could share in any recovery,” read the letter, which added, “Establishing a rival group that attempts to recover for identical alleged past harms would only benefit Zuffa, presenting it with the option of paying the lowest bidder to resolve fighters’ claims. Your actions could also damage our efforts … to seek a binding court order putting an end to certain of Zuffa’s alleged anticompetitive misconduct. As you must be aware, the fighters are better off united than divided, and thus your attempts to sow division operate to no one’s advantage but Zuffa’s.”

The MMAAA released a statement soon after report of the letter first hit, saying, “The MMAAA will do no such thing. Those lawyers – who represent only a few fighters – are focused on getting some money out of one case, of which they seek a significant portion for themselves. Those lawyers do not speak for anyone else, and certainly not the MMAAA and all the fighters the organization represents now and will quickly grow to represent in the sport.”

Both sides admit to a meeting on October 15th, 2015 which was initiated by longtime manager Ken Pavia and saw class-action attorneys Eric Cramer, Joseph Saveri and Benjamin Brown present as well as Rebney, representatives from CAA and Pavia. The class-action lawyers claim Rebney and his people suggested a separate anti-trust suit if they “did not meet certain demands” that were detailed ten days afterward, including participation in any class action settlement and payment of a certain percentage of any money recovered from the suit. The cease-and-desist letter says, “As you know, we rejected your demands because we believed that they were neither consistent with applicable canons of professional ethics, nor with our duties as co-lead class counsel to protect the interests of all UFC fighters in the proposed classes that the court appointed us (and not you or your lawyers) to represent.”

The MMAAA says it laid out its goals for the group and that the class-action lawyers “made clear that they did not share the MMAAA’s vision….They are focused on a short-term monetary recovery, of which they will seek 33 percent, and then they are gone from this sport.”

The class-action suit is still in the discovery stages. A judge will decide next year whether to certify its class-action status or not.