UFC Will Confront Fighter Damages of Up to $1.6 Billion at Trial

Mixed martial artists are gearing up to face the Ultimate Fighting Championship at a trial in April, seeking up to $1.6 billion in damages over allegedly anti-competitive contracts.

The fighters, who won class status last year, anticipate presenting evidence at the high-stakes trial that the Las Vegas-based fighting powerhouse caused them numerous forms of harm. They say it degraded the quality of mixed-martial artist events, trapping them in a cycle of successive contracts, and paying the athletes less than they would have received in a competitive market, according to a trial brief submitted Thursday in US District Court for the ...