Nevada district court judge denies settlement between the UFC and former fighters

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Nevada district court judge denies settlement between the UFC and former fighters

2024-08-01 08:03 Last Updated At：08:10

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada district judge denied a $335 million settlement Tuesday in two UFC antitrust lawsuits brought by former fighters, potentially sending both sides back to the negotiating table.

Judge Richard Boulware set Aug. 19 for a status update for both cases with a tentative trial date for the one involving former MMA athlete Cung Le on Oct. 28. A firm trial date will be scheduled at the conference.

The UFC issued a statement saying it disagreed with the ruling and already was in contact with the opposing counsel, “who have expressed a willingness to engage in separate settlement discussions.”

Boulware did not explain his decision, but an opinion will be forthcoming, according to the court document.

The settlement was agreed to in March.

The two class-action lawsuits by former UFC fighters were led by Le, filed in 2014, and Kajan Johnson, filed in 2021. Several other fighters also were mentioned in the suits.

They alleged the UFC attempted to act as a monopoly and thus limited the fighters’ ability to maximize their earnings.

The UFC's statement said the judge's decision also was harmful to the athletes who agreed to the settlement.

“(By) taking the unusual step of denying the settlement at this preliminary approval stage, the Judge is also denying the athletes their right to be heard during this pivotal moment in the case,” the organization's statement read.

Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association, led by one of the athletes' attorneys, posted on X, “We have a story to tell about the monopolization of MMA.”

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Tens of thousands of Spaniards march across the country to protest the growing housing crisis

2025-04-06 03:26 Last Updated At：03:30

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in protests held across the European country on Saturday in anger over high housing costs with no relief in sight.

Government authorities said that 15,000 marched in Madrid, while organizers said 10 times that many took to the streets of the capital. In Barcelona, the city hall said 12,000 people took part in the protest, while organizers claimed over 100,000 did.

The massive demonstration of social angst that is a major concern for Spain's left-wing government was organized by housing activists and backed by Spain’s main labor unions.

The housing crisis has hit particularly hard in Spain, where there is a strong tradition of home ownership and scant public housing for rent. Rents have been driven up by increased demand. Buying a home has become unaffordable for many, with market pressures and speculation driving up prices, especially in big cities and coastal areas.

A generation of young people say they have to stay with their parents or spend big just to share an apartment, with little chance of saving enough to one day purchase a home. High housing costs mean even those with traditionally well-paying jobs are struggling to make ends meet.

“I’m living with four people and still, I allocate 30 or 40% of my salary to rent,” said Mari Sánchez, a 26-year-old lawyer in Madrid. “That doesn’t allow me to save. That doesn’t allow me to do anything. It doesn’t even allow me to buy a car. That’s my current situation, and the one many young people are living through.”

Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez said on X that “I share the demand of the numerous people who have marched today: that homes are for living in and not for speculating."

The average rent in Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years. The price per square meter rose from 7.2 euros ($7.90) in 2014 to 13 euros last year, according to real estate website Idealista. The increase is bigger in Madrid and Barcelona.

Incomes have failed to keep up, especially for younger people in a country with chronically high unemployment.

Spain does not have the public housing that other European nations have invested in to cushion struggling renters from a market that is pricing them out.

Spain is near the bottom end of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries with public housing for rent making up under 2% of all available housing. The OECD average is 7%. In France it is is 14%, Britain 16% and the Netherlands 34%.

Angry renters point to instances of international hedge funds buying up properties, often with the aim of renting them to foreign tourists. The question has become so politically charged that Barcelona’s city government pledged last year to phase out all its 10,000 permits for short-term rentals, many of them advertised on platforms like Airbnb, by 2028.

Marchers in Madrid on Saturday chanted “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods" and held up signs against short-term rentals. In Barcelona, someone carried a sign reading “I am not leaving, vampire," apparently in a message to would-be real estate speculator seeking to drive him out of his home.

The central government's biggest initiative for curbing the cost of housing is a rent cap mechanism it has offered to regional authorities, based on a price index established by the housing ministry. The government says the measure has slightly reduced rents in Barcelona, one of the few areas it has been applied.

But government measures have not proven enough to stop protests over the past two years. Experts say the situation likely won't improve anytime soon.

“This is not the first, nor will it be the last, (housing protest) given the severity of the housing crisis,” Ignasi Martí, professor with the Esade business school and head of its Dignified Housing Observatory, said in an email.

“We saw this with the financial crisis (of 2008-2012) when (a protest movement) lasted until there was a certain economic recovery and a reduction in the social tension," Marti added.