This past week has seen two crucial developments in the anti-trust lawsuit filed by various fighters against the UFC. First the UFC lost a motion to dismiss the claim. Second, the UFC lost a motion to prevent one of the Plaintiff’s key lawyers, Rob Maysey, who was instrumental in getting the litigation underway and founder … More The UFC’s Books About To Be Opened in Anti Trust Laswsuit
Last month I questioned whether all UFC fighters have agreed to the promoter’s anti-doping policy and pondered what would happen to fighters who refuse to do so. Yesterday, the UFC’s Vice President of Athlete Health & Performance, Jeff Novitzky, shed some light on these issues. In a broad interview provided to Josh Samman at BloodyElbow, … More UFC Anti-Doping Czar Novitzky “Not Everyone Has Signed” Anti-Doping Contract
Earlier this year when Federal Judge Kimba Wood dismissed a UFC lawsuit against New York alleging the State’s professional MMA ban was unconstitutional the Court noted that the Plaintiff’s did not have standing to sue. The Court did suggest, however, that the law may not withstand scrutiny if the UFC could establish damages and invited … More MMA in New York in 2016? Dissecting the UFC’s Latest Lawsuit
This morning Jon Jones plead guilty to a 4th degree felony after being involved in a hit and run causing injury to his victim, a crime which came with a potential of up to 18 months imprisonment. A plea deal was reached and he was sentenced to a conditional discharge (basically meaning Jones will not … More Jon Jones Pleads Guilty To 4th Degree Felony; Granted Conditional Discharge
On Friday the UFC lost a motion to dismiss the proposed class action anti trust lawsuits against them. If you are not following the ins and outs of this litigation I encourage you to do so at BloodyElbow where Paul Gift and John Nash have provided coverage that is second to none. In Gift’s play by … More Are UFC Contracts, Like a Diamond, Forever?
Lost in this week’s story by Josh Gross discussing the UFC’s role in mixed martial arts ‘TRT era’ is the important parallel story that doping is 100% legal under Ontario’s combat sports regulations. Combat sports regulation in Ontario is filled with problems such as the government turning a blind eye to amateur MMA which is illegal … More Just a Friendly Reminder that Ontario Turns a Blind Eye to Doping in Combat Sports
Update October 3, 2015 – today at the UFC 192 post fight presser UFC Vice President of Public Relations issued the following comments on this issue – “I think one of the things to keep in mind with this particular topic is any suggestion or inference that there was a cover up regarding to that … More Let’s Talk About What MMA’s Doping and CTE Lawsuit May Look Like
Adding to this site’s archived cases of UFC pay per view event piracy prosecutions, two further judgments were released recently reaching rather opposite results in assessing damages on fairly similar facts. In the first case (Joe Hand Promotions , Inc v. Musser) the Defendant was found liable for showing UFC 172 in his commercial establishment … More Maximum and Minimum Statutory Damages Awarded in Separate Cases of UFC PPV Piracy
One of the latest safety studies addressing combat sports, published last month in the journal Australasian Epidemiologist, the author compiled data from a total of 47 observational studies addressing injuries in combat sports. Specifically the author looked for the injury incidence rate, injury patterns and injury severity rates in 6 different sports, namely boxing, judo, karate, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, … More Study – MMA Has Greatest Injury Rate Among Combat Sports
Adding to this site’s archived safety studies in combat sports, a study was recently published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggesting headguards can reduce concussions in combat sports. The authors, McIntosh and Patton, recently authored another article suggesting the quality of headguards can make a significant difference in effectiveness, noted in the new … More Study Suggests Headguards Reduce Concussions in Combat Sports
Combat Sports Law 