Major Victory for UFC Fighters: Huge Payouts After Antitrust Lawsuit
It’s not every day you hear about a major sports league paying out hundreds of millions for alleged wage suppression. For over a decade, former UFC fighters have quietly battled in court, claiming their paychecks were squeezed by the world’s top mixed martial arts promotion. Now, the wait is over—and for many, the windfall is real.
More than 1,100 fighters are set to share the spoils of a UFC antitrust settlement totaling $350 million. No matter how you slice it, this is one of the biggest legal payouts in any sport. Some will get life-changing checks: at least 35 athletes will pull in over $1 million each. Another 100 or so will see more than $500,000 hit their accounts. Even the middle tier—over 500 fighters—are due to receive $100,000 or more. The average payout? A solid $250,000, enough to change a retiree’s life or help a journeyman pay off old injuries.
This doesn’t come out of nowhere. The lawsuit dragged on for nearly ten years, led by the law firms Berger Montague and Cohen Milstein, fighting tooth and nail for justice. They wrangled participation from 97% of eligible fighters, representing more than 15 nations. Compensation goes out to past competitors not just from the U.S., but from places where MMA is big business—Brazil, Canada, Japan, and Russia all have athletes in line for payments. For some, this is the payday that their fighting careers never really delivered.
How UFC’s Business Practices Sparked the Biggest Payout in MMA History
So what’s this all about? The heart of the case was UFC’s alleged grip on the market between 2010 and 2017. Fighters argued the company acted like the only game in town—using its power to cap wages and muscle fighters into restrictive contracts. For years, rumors swirled about tight negotiation ceilings, “take-it-or-leave-it” deals, and athletes feeling boxed out of fair bargaining. This landmark case put those concerns front and center in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Richard F. Boulware signed off on the deal in February 2025. He didn’t pull any punches—calling the potential payouts "life-changing" at last month’s hearing. That’s not legal bluster. With this kind of money, some fighters will finally breathe easy about their families’ future or afford healthcare they couldn’t access when fighting for scraps.
The deal might close the book on phase one of the legal saga, but don’t think the story is done. UFC, now folded into TKO Group after its headline-making merger with WWE, still stares down the barrel of another massive lawsuit. The next case, Johnson v. Zuffa, kicks off where the last one left off—targeting UFC practices from 2017 onward. So even as the checks start to go out, the court battles are just shifting to a new chapter.
For now, this settlement marks a dramatic change for the UFC’s reputation and its fighters. For years, talk of fair pay has bubbled under the surface. With this historic payout, the issue is finally out in the open, and a whole generation of fighters will get a piece of what they earned in the cage.
