February 27, 2026
A trio of former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters pursuing wage-fixing claims in a proposed class action against the mixed martial arts organization have now moved for “severe” sanctions over alleged document destruction, asking a Nevada federal court to issue a default judgment in their favor.
In a sanctions motion filed Wednesday, named plaintiffs Kajan Johnson, Clarence Dollaway and Tristan Connelly told the court that TKO Operating Co. LLC — which does business as UFC — along with its majority owner, Endeavor Group Holdings Inc., and operator Zuffa LLC together “destroyed years of critical evidence” pertinent to the antitrust case, and then spent months scheming to cover up their spoliation.
“Defendants’ brazen obfuscation of spoliation and counsels’ disregard for their Rule 26(g) obligations and this court’s authority, evidenced by violations of every discovery order, shows an intentional years-long effort to spoliate key evidence by key custodians, to create the conditions to allow the loss, and, worst of all, to cover it up, obscuring the true extent of the destruction,” the plaintiffs said in their motion. “Severe sanctions must follow.”
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The plaintiffs are represented by Joseph R. Saveri, Christopher K.L. Young, Kevin E. Rayhill, Itak Moradi and T. Brent Jordan of Joseph Saveri Law Firm LLP, by Eric L. Cramer, Michael Dell’Angelo, Patrick F. Madden and Joshua P. Davis of Berger Montague PC, by Benjamin D. Brown, Richard A. Koffman and Daniel H. Silverman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, by W. Joseph Bruckner, Brian D. Clark and Kyle Pozan of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP, and by Michael J. Gayan of Claggett & Sykes.
Read Fighters Allege UFC Destroyed ‘Years Of Critical Evidence’.