‘I fear that I’m unable to have children’: Fighters reveal physical, financial hardships in support for UFC antitrust settlement

With a decision on the UFC antitrust lawsuit settlement looming Tuesday, another group of 52 fighters submitted statements in hopes of convincing the courts to approve the $375 million payout.

Judge Richard Boulware in Nevada is expected to issue a ruling soon on the preliminary settlement agreement that was submitted to settle the first UFC antitrust lawsuit that was filed all the way back in 2014. The decade-long case covered fighters who competed in the UFC from 2010 to 2017.

A second lawsuit covering fighters from 2017 to present is still working towards a potential trial date, although it’s possible a separate settlement could be reached before that happens.

The latest round of support for the settlement including a number of former UFC champions including recently retired strawweight Carla Esparza as well as former bantamweight king Renan Barao.

Perhaps the most in-depth response came from retired strawweight competitor Felice Herrig, who fought five times during the class period represented by the first UFC antitrust lawsuit. In her statement, Herrig detailed both physical and financial hardships that she’s suffered through during and after her time spent competing in the UFC.

“Fighting for the UFC was the achievement of what I thought was my dream, but the reality is after a lengthy career I left with a worn-down body, severe depression, and nothing to show for my years competing at the top of the sport,” Herrig wrote. “I still battle depression to this day and am angry that I saw so little reward for what I provided to the UFC.

“Throughout most of my UFC fight career, I was going into debt and borrowing money from family to fund fight camps and then paying off this debt with my purses. As a result of this debt, I and other peers frequently take fights while injured to pay off the debt from training camp that was already incurred. At other times, fighters are pressured to take fights on short notice or against last-minute replacement opponents who they have not prepared for and face the dilemma of taking a risky fight for little reward or enduring through a lengthy period on the shelf with no fight offered, your contract extended and no income.”

Herrig detailed her struggles with weight cutting and a number of injuries she suffered, which continued to plague her in retirement.

“Throughout my career, my ideal weight to compete at was 125 pounds, but with weight divisions in the UFC at 10-pound increments, this would have left me with the choice of fighting undersized at my natural weight or enduring grueling weight cuts to get down to 115 pounds for weigh-ins,” Herrig said. “In one instance, I was asked to do 12 hours of media obligations the day before weigh-ins while cutting weight. I was exhausted, starving, and experienced an adrenaline dump soon after my fight started that left me unable to move. I now believe that fighters promote the UFC and not vice versa—fighters are interchangeable, disposable and expendable when MMA is not operated as a sport.

“While fighting for the UFC and during my MMA career, I suffered many significant injuries including a torn ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus on my right knee. After almost a year and with my insurance coverage running out for the initial occurrence, my knee was not fully healed, but I took a fight anyway, and discovered I needed additional surgery on my meniscus. This knee continues to give me problems to this day and will require ongoing maintenance and physical therapy for the rest of my life.”

One-time UFC title challenger Jessica Eye, who retired from competition in 2022, detailed the struggles she’s faced since leaving the sport. In particular, Eye says the physical toll fighting took on her brain and body have made it that much tougher to move forward with a new career where she’s no longer getting punched in the face for a living.

“While fighting for the UFC, I suffered many significant injuries including to my left elbow which required Tommy John surgery, removal of my gall bladder which became inflamed during fight camp, kidney failure and sepsis following a grueling weight cut that caused permanent damage, and a laceration to my forehead that required 20 stitches to close,” Eye wrote. “During my career I also suffered dozens of concussions. I fear that during my career I have suffered traumatic brain injury (TBI) and am noticing symptoms common with TBI and CTE including anxiety, depression, irritability, sensitivity to light, headaches and memory loss.

“I was hospitalized for 32 days receiving treatment for PTSD and TBI. To date, no treatment for CTE has been found. I have fainted on two different occasions, including while riding my motorcycle and TBI is the suspected cause of these episodes. I was extremely depressed following my retirement from the UFC, and I have struggled to acclimate to my post-career life. I have been unable to maintain adequate focus to complete schooling and have had difficulty writing even simple paragraphs. I face serious challenges in meeting basic everyday expenses for food, shelter, and transportation and in paying for health insurance and the medical treatment I need now.”

Eye also stated that “endured grueling weight cuts” on multiple occasions that she fears “caused permanent damage to my body.”

Gina Mazany, who also last fought in the UFC in 2022, claims that her body suffered so much from extreme weight cuts that she’s not sure she’ll ever be able to have children as a result.

“[I] endured grueling weight cuts, cutting from 163 pounds to 136 pounds for a fight offered on 16 days’ notice that I fear has caused permanent damage to my body,” Mazany wrote. “My menstrual cycle did not return until six months after this weight cut and has never returned to normal. I fear that I am unable to have children.”

In addition to her weight-cutting problems, Mazany also claimed that a surgery she needed while she was still active during her UFC career was denied after he final fight with the promotion.

“While fighting for the UFC, I suffered a broken nose and crushed septum that makes me unable to breath out of the right side of my nose,” Mazany explained. “After this fight, I was advised to wait to have surgery to repair my septum until I was finished fighting. After my last fight in the UFC, I requested surgery to repair my septum and the UFC denied coverage, stating that I didn’t break my nose during my final fight.

“I have been unable to afford the surgery to repair my septum, and it remains crushed to this day.”

Joe Riggs, who spent several stints with the UFC after his debut in 2004, also revealed a long list of injuries and surgeries he’s dealt with throughout his career.

“While fighting for the UFC and during my MMA career, I suffered many significant injuries and had 23 surgeries including three nasal surgeries, fractures to both orbital bones, three retina detachments in my left eye, shoulder surgery, six surgeries on my left hand including the insertion of four screws, elbow surgery, arm surgery on a compound fracture on my right arm that led to the insertion of a plate, and multiple concussions,” Riggs said.

“I fear that during my career I have suffered traumatic brain injury (TBI) and am noticing symptoms common with TBI and CTE including anxiety, depression, insomnia, irritability, quick to anger and memory loss.”

Alexander Yakovlev, who competed in the UFC between 2014 and 2020, also revealed long term health problems he’s faced with the majority of his issues coming from grueling weight cuts.

“During my career, I have had about 10 concussions. But most of the damage to my health was due to weight cutting,” Yakovlev said. “In 2015, while preparing for the fight with Gray Maynard, I had a very difficult weight cut. After which I suffered great harm to my health. I developed problems with the cardiovascular system and a disruption in the functioning of the nervous system. The transmission of nerve impulses worsened. The functioning of the lymphatic and venous systems worsened. This negatively affected the functioning of many systems and organs of the body. My memory worsened, I became emotionally unstable, edema appeared, my sleep worsened, and I periodically had problems with my heart.

“After this weight cut, I never returned to my previous level of health, and my career went downhill. I am still struggling with the consequences of that weight cut.”

Many other fighters revealed similar issues when it came to struggling with finances as we as physical problems that persist long after they’re doing competing.

The attorneys representing the fighters have now submitted more than 150 testimonials from athletes past and present in hopes of swaying the judge to approve the settlement. In the initial paperwork filed with the preliminary settlement agreement, the plaintiffs stated that the fighters involved in the $375 million settlement “would recover (on average), after all fees and costs are deducted, $250,000.”