Attorney: NLRB plans to file complaint against UFC in Smith case

Mixed martial arts has reached mainstream sports status. However, unlike mainstream professional sports like football, baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, and golf, MMA does not have a players association or union. The latest UFC organizing effort is bantamweight Leslie Smith Project Spearhead, undertaken with attorney Lucas Middlebrook, among others. The group seeks to organize UFC fighters into a certified labor union.

The league characteristically offers fighters a new contract before the old one expires. Smith said none was offered, so a fight vs. Aspen Ladd at Fight Night 128 in April was to have potentially been her last. When Ladd failed to make weight, Smith offered to fight if she was given a two-fight contract at a flat $100,000 per fight, win or lose. The UFC instead paid Smith her win and show money, leaving her a free agent.

Smith filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board arguing that the UFC failure to re-sign her was retaliation for the organizing effort, and thus illegal.

Middlebrook spoke recently with Marc Raimondi for MMA Fighting on Friday. The attorney says the NLRB has made a determination that Smith’s claim that UFC fighters are employees not independent contractors has merit and that the allegation of discrimination against Smith has merit. The NLRB will reportedly be filing a complaint against the UFC, barring a settlement.

In this initial step, this is the best-case scenario, that the NLRB will have investigated the charge and determined that there was enough merit to file a complaint and prosecute the charge on behalf of Leslie, said Middlebrook. I believe once the evidence is presented in a hearing in front of an administrative law judge, I believe at a minimum a determination will be made that the fighters are statutory employees, said Middlebrook. But I also believe that a determination will be made that by their conduct that they violated the [National Labor Relations Act] when they released Leslie.

If you look at the statistics, thousands and thousands of charges are filed each year with the NLRB and merit determinations are made. You just don’t hear about it, because typically they are not high-profile cases. But a lot of work went into presenting the NLRB with evidence and also refuting the UFC’s claims as to why it was not discriminatory. And in the end, the evidence that was presented convinced Region 4 that Leslie’s charge had merit.

The complaint will be fired in about a month, and that following a discovery hearing, there will be a hearing in front of an administrative law judge in the late fall. There is also the possibility that the UFC and the NLRB and Smith will reach a settlement. That would represent a major step forward for fighter organization efforts.

In 2009 Robert Maysey founded the MMAFA, which seeks to extend the Muhammad Ali Act to the sport. Their aim is to keep fighters as independent contractors, establish an independent sanctioning and ranking system, and then let the free market do its thing. If you want to have Conor McGregor fight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, then promoters bid for the right, and whoever offers the highest purse gets to put on the fight. A bill supported by Congressman and retired fighter Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) is currently before the house now. The MMAFA is also a force behind the Federal anti-trust suit against the UFC, which is ongoing.

In August of 2016, baseball agent Jeff Borris established the PFA; he sought to have UFC fighters reclassified as employees from their current independent contractor status, and form a union. He grandly announced there would be a fighter board in place shortly, but later amended that, saying he did not want to offer names, for fear of retaliation. His most high-profile fighter, Leslie Smith, apologized for introducing him to other fighters and severed ties, over a perceived violation of privacy. His attorney too severed ties. Borris flatly denied leaking any fighter support information. But little has been heard from him in ages. You can stick a fork in Jeff Borris, third runner up in a Hank Schrader lookalike contest.

In November of 2016, a group of five fighters announced the formation of the MMAAA, which seeks to form a players association exclusively of UFC fighters, and then petition the league for a 600% increase in the amount of revenue that goes to fighters. The route to the raise was described as a strategy that had to remain secret. The groups funding was also described as a secret. It is widely believed that the MMAAA is financed by CAA, Pepsi to UFC owner WME-IMG’s Coke. And it’s widely believed that the MMAAA was created by Bjorn Rebney, not known as a progressive promoter. Tim Kennedy emerged as a sometime spokesperson for the effort, but has said little of late. Other fighters have been quieter still, at best. The fork is poised.

Thus the sport is left with two very different paths forward – the MMAFA’s Federal law to let fighters as independent contractors search out the highest bidder for their services, and Project Spearhead’s unionization of employees.