UFC bosses Dana White and Hunter Campbell were in court in Nevada this past week answering questions about the lack of overturned disclosure materials for another series of antitrust lawsuits launched by the fighters.
Just like Le vs. Zuffa — which ended in a $375 million settlement from 2012 to 2017 — Johnson v. Zuffa accuses the UFC of using the power of the monopsony to artificially lower the wages of the fighters, this time from 2017 onwards. Cirkunov v. Zuffa argues that UFC fighters who signed class action arbitration clauses should still be able to participate in Johnson v. Zuffa, and Davis v. Zuffa represents fighters outside the UFC who also claim to have been harmed by the UFC’s anti-competitive behavior.
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All these anti-trust cases are being handled together by Judge Richard Boulware, the same judge who handled the Le vs Zuffa settlement. According to the fighters’ attorneys, years of communications from White, Campbell, and UFC attorney Tracy Long were completely missing from overturned discovery documents, leading to this past week’s spoliation hearing.
If the UFC fails to dig up that data, they could be on the receiving end of serious legal repercussions from Judge Boulware.
Those listening to the spoliation hearing held on February 11 and 12, 2026 were not treated to much exciting courtroom drama, even when UFC CEO Dana White and CBO Hunter Campbell took the stand. Instead there was a lot of jousting back and forth about who did what work related to fighter contracts, how those people communicated with each other, and what happened to old phones used by various employees.
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The purpose of the hearing was to establish why five years’ worth of communications from White and Long were not turned over to the fighter’s lawyers. There was also a phone from Campbell that was never scanned that the plaintiffs allegedly used to send more than 3000 text messages to UFC matchmakers. All in all, the testimony provided paints a picture of the UFC being extremely sloppy with their legal responsibility to maintain and turn over records to the court.
Legal expert John Nash was present in Nevada to testify at the hearing and discussed the potential results of the spoliation hearing on his Substack podcast.
“The judge will probably impose some kind of sanction on the plaintiffs,” Nash said on Hey Not The Face. “He said that these are punishable crimes. The question is: on a spectrum of what he can do and a spectrum of how much fault he finds with him, what will he do?”
The UFC has claimed that Dana White is no longer involved in anything regarding UFC fighters, contracts, or matchups which means the years of missing communication don’t matter. Boulware’s questioning of White suggested he didn’t quite buy that argument.
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“If the judge decides that this material is really relevant to the case, that there is material out there that is important,” Nash said. “It’s not just a small amount, but a large amount that is very important to show the business of the UFC, and it’s missing. Then how do you run a case? How do the plaintiffs make their case? How does the judge make the determinations? How does the jury do it?”
“The judge has to make a determination about these arbitration agreements,” Nash said of Cirkunov v. Zuffa. “He has to make a decision on these waivers of the arbitration class action, and he can basically say, ‘I have to decide with the [fighters] because the material that could possibly either prove the plaintiff’s case or prove the defendant’s case is missing.'”
“‘And because it is missing due to gross negligence or malicious intent by the [UFC]I am forced by an adverse inference to weigh on the side of the plaintiffs in that case. I must set aside these arbitration agreements and class action waivers under Nevada law.’ And so all the fighters… are now back in the Johnson class.
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The more class-action fighters are represented, the more money is at stake as this anti-trust case moves forward. The $375 million Le v. settlement. Zuffa is a small amount compared to how much money the fighters Johnson v. Zuffa can sue. And that negative inference due to violations of sanctioned discovery can fire the UFC through an actual trial.
“If he goes to trial,” Nash said. “[The judge] he can turn to the trial and say, ‘Because this material is missing, I think you should have a negative inference that you, the jury, are free to interpret any time there is an argument based on material that we don’t have available. You can weigh that it is the most negative for the [UFC] and most beneficial to the [fighters].”
Judge Boulware gave UFC lawyers 30 more days to resolve the mess of mobile phones and missing records, but it seems that the missing years worth of Dana White’s communication will not be recovered. How the judge will react to this is unknown, but he has made it clear that he is extremely unhappy about how poorly the UFC has kept their records despite being under a court order to save them.
The legal fallout from his decision on the subject could be huge, and could push the UFC towards another multi-million dollar settlement with its fighters.