UCFC Win In Pittsburgh Sets Up UCFC vs. UFC In Courtroom Brawl

Pittsburgh’s first MMA event might set up a battle of a different sort – in a courtroom.

The Ultimate Cage Fighting Challenge, put on by Still Standing Productions, LLC, has MMA’s biggest promotion talking legal smack and a copyright infringement claim may be on the horizon.

UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Marc Ratner, said the UFC is looking at potential action against the upstart organization.

“We’re always happy to see fans, and we love competition,” Ratner said. “There’s nothing wrong with it. But there’s some copyright infringement problems when they call themselves the UCFC. We’re looking at that right now, and I’ll say that to the world. It’s too close to our initials, too close to our whole way of doing business.”

The UCFC has promoted its bouts as the Ultimate Cage Fighting Challenge and their own website uses the phrase ‘Ultimate Cage Fighting Championship’.  That’s a good way to piss off the 800-pound gorilla in the room and sure to provide the UFC with ammunition if the case ever gets as far as a courtroom.

A visit to the upstart promotion’s website leaves you with a distinct sense of deja vu if you’re a regular visitor to the UFC website. In fact, it leaves you wondering if the UFC’s graphic designer might be doing a little work on the side to make that pesky boat payment every month.

The June 27 Rumble on the Rivers, held at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh, featured a main-event of Kyle Jensen vs. Rich Clementi. Micah Miller, Paul Bradley and Phil Davis were also featured on the card.

Ratner was impressed with the UCFC’s effort and said it was good news for the future of MMA events in Pennsylvania.

“They had over 5,000 people there, and it just bodes well,” Ratner said. “I think the Mellon Arena would be a great arena if we were to go there.”

The UFC (and parent company Zuffa LLC) have been aggressive in chasing down organizations and individuals in potential violation of their intellectual property rights and the company has successfully argued in past cases that use of the letters UFC, an octagon competition surface, an octagon logo, or the term “ultimate fighting,” are hands off for other promotions.

The involvement of Tito Ortiz is sure to piss Dana White off in a major way as well.

ZUFFA LLC also has a room where they keep large sacks of cash for just such an emergency, and that’s always handy when you enter a courtroom with a beef…

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