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Leagues and Governing Bodies

MMAAA Claims Attorneys Trying To Keep Organization From Signing UFC Fighters

The MMA Athletes Association yesterday issued an "urgent news" release alleging that attorneys were trying to stop the new trade association from attracting UFC fighters as members. "Yesterday, the MMAAA received a 'cease and desist' letter from a group of lawyers seeking to stop the MMAAA from signing up fighters and sticking up for their rights against the UFC and its owners WME-IMG," the MMAAA said in its news release. The statement did not name the lawyers, but it was apparently referring to the group of attorneys who are suing the UFC on antitrust grounds. SB Nation obtained the letter from three attorneys to MMAAA organizer Bjorn Rebney and printed it yesterday. Eric Cramer, a partner at Berger & Montague, one of the authors of the letter and co-lead counsel on the ongoing antitrust lawsuit against the UFC, said the attorneys were not trying to stop the MMAAA from signing up fighters. He said the news release was inaccurate in several respects. "It's inaccurate in stating we are trying to stop Rebney from trying to sign up fighters; we're not," Cramer said. "It claims we approached Rebney first; we did not. All we are interested is the best interests of the fighters." Cramer also said that attorneys representing the UFC fighters in the lawsuit which is currently in the discovery phase in the U.S. District Court in Nevada are concerned the MMAAA organizers are undermining their efforts. "They sought to recruit one or more of our clients into their group which is seeking to recover for past harms," Cramer said. "Rebney is trying to recruit for past harms and we are trying to recover for past harms," he said. Rebney and James Quinn, Weil partner who is the MMAAA's lead counsel, were not available for interviews yesterday.

CREATING A STIR: The letter caused a stir in the agent community as it fueled the speculation that CAA, a fierce rival to WME-IMG, was backing the MMAAA effort. The letter to Rebney stated that the antitrust attorneys were invited to a meeting at CAA's offices in N.Y. in October '15 during which Rebney and his legal team had sought to be included in the ongoing UFC litigation, which is seeking class action status.  Four of the five fighters on the MMAAA board, including Georges St-Pierre, are represented by CAA. But Rebney dismissed talk that CAA is backing the MMAAA as "Oliver Stone-esque conspiracy theories" last week at his press conference announcing the launch of the association. 

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