The UFC has criticised a judge who rejected a financial settlement it had reached with former fighters.

In March the UFC’s parent company the TKO Group agreed a £262m ($335m) settlement in two lawsuits that represented about 1,200 former UFC athletes.

The group of former fighters claimed the UFC’s contracts suppressed athletes’ abilities to negotiate other promotional options.

However, earlier this week in Nevada Judge Richard Boulware refused to accept the settlement and set a tentative trial date for October.

“We obviously disagree with this ruling,” the UFC said.

“As we have said throughout this process, we believe strongly in the merits of our cases and are evaluating all our options, including, without limitation, an appeal, and have initiated discussions with plaintiffs’ counsel who have expressed a willingness to engage in separate settlement discussions for the Le and Johnson cases.”

There are two separate lawsuits, one filed by fighters Cung Le and Nate Quarry in 2014 representing fighters from 2010 to 2017, and a second filed by fighters such as Kajan Johnson that represents fighters from 2017 to the present.

The UFC had reached a joint settlement for both cases. The first lawsuit could begin on 28 October.

Plaintiffs in both cases say are they open to “re-engaging” with the UFC over a new settlement or moving forward with the trial.

The judge had previously said he felt the settlement number was too low.

The UFC merged with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) in 2023 to form the TKO Group.