James Quinn, a veteran Weil, Gotshal & Manges litigator and longtime legal advocate for professional athletes, is representing a group of Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters forming a trade association in order to negotiate better terms with management of the top mixed martial arts promotion company. UFC, which sees participants face off inside an octagon-shaped ring, was sold in a $4 billion deal last summer.
Last week one of Quinn’s clients, three-time UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre, spoke on a conference call with four other fighters and Bjorn Rebney, a California lawyer and former top executive at UFC rival Bellator, in which they described their plans to create the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA). The organization, which will initially operate as a trade association, said in a statement that it will fight for the rights of MMA fighters and force UFC’s ownership to “dramatically alter the company’s decade plus outrageous treatment of its athletes.”
