Knowledge is power and apparently the UFC don’t want fighters to be informed when it comes to contract negotiations.
In recent court papers filed in Mark Hunt’s doping lawsuit against Brock Lesnar and Zuffa, the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa asks the Court to keep details of Mark Hunt’s contract confidential. Why? Because they don’t want other fighters on their roster to know the details of Hunt’s deal.
Lucas Middlebrook, the labor lawyer doing the legal heavy lifting for Project Spearhead, an attempt to organize fighters, posted this snippet from Zuffa’s court filing –
If fighters unionized there would be far more transparency in contract negotiation, something Zuffa clearly does not want.
This is not the first time Zuffa made arguments to Court explaining how unionizing can in fact help fighters. Earlier this year, Zuffa’s lawyers filed an argument in defence of the anti-trust lawsuit the UFC is facing noting it is unfair to compare UFC fighter revenue shares with other pro sports because other pro sports are unionized. They argued that fighters should not expect the revenue split athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL receive because those athletes are unionized and fighters are not.
It is unknown what it will take for a meaningful number of active fighters to take the steps needed to attempt to unionize. If fighters read Zuffa’s official court filings, however, the case to do so becomes pretty clear.
Combat Sports Law 