A Fighting Chance

When the check arrived, Carlos “The Ronin” Newton was at home in Newmarket, Ontario. It was 2012, two years after his last catchweight bout in Impact Fighting Championship, Newton having worked in property development since putting down his gloves. Earlier that year, THQ had released a mixed martial arts video game featuring fighters from the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pride Fighting Championships (PRIDE); because his likeness was used, Zuffa, the parent company of both promotions, issued him a royalty payment of $500. The amount, Newton said, was less than what he made in a week in his teens as a lifeguard: a negligible, three-figure sum for a company whose subsidiary had seen an estimated revenue of $360 million in 2011. He ripped up the check and made a phone call to his friend, former UFC welterweight champion Pat Miletich—whom he’d actually beaten for the title in 2001—to vent his frustrations, at one point mentioning his interest in pursuing legal action against the promotion. Miletich in turn put him in contact with several lawyers, including Arizona lawyer Rob Maysey.