‘They went after a sick, disabled man’: MMA pirate who confronted $32 MILLION tremendous slams UFC whereas insisting he ISN’T sorry

A person who was efficiently sued by the UFC in a $ 32 million lawsuit has ended his silence in damning type, calling the multibillion-dollar promotion’s chiefs ‘previous ass bozos’ and distancing himself from his personal public apology.

New Yorker Steven Messina was prosecuted by the UFC over the distribution of an estimated 200 hours of content material in 2014, streaming occasions watched by followers unwilling to pay subscription and pay-per-view charges which have now risen to an annual ESPN cost of just about $ 85 and a charge nearing $ 65 for particular person occasions.

He appeared to have issued a groveling apology for importing a minimum of 124 UFC occasions to websites together with The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, settling with the claimants after they pursued copyright damages of $ 18.6 million and a spread of additional funds.

Now Messina has strenuously defended his actions, calling the apology “bogus” and claiming that UFC president Dana White and different bosses owe him their gratitude for giving their occasions one other platform and serving to them to succeed in hard-up audiences.

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“I by no means publicly apologized, nor was I ever sorry,” Messina instructed Torrent Freak, explaining that he took “pleasure” in serving to “the various” and uploaded content material from different promotions whose stars later joined the UFC.

“The UFC merely needed [my lawyer] to signal a contract that may allow them to launch an article of ‘me apologizing’ on FOX Sports activities’ web site.

“Mainly, ‘We’ll drop this for those who allow us to write a bogus story about you to the general public’ is what they had been saying.

“No-one obtained harm and different individuals nonetheless made cash. No matter what they are saying, they didn’t lose cash. That’s merely an archaic, bullsh*t mindset.”

Messina instructed the location that he “caved simply to get it over with” however solely paid his lawyer, by no means surrendered his gear to the UFC and didn’t subject a private apology.

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He’s mentioned to be notably aggrieved by a part of the attributed assertion wherein he accepted the “hurt induced” and warned others of the perils of piracy.

“Whoever wrote this will kiss my ass,” he mentioned. “Are you making an attempt to inform me that individuals who can barely pay their payments shouldn’t be capable of present help in your product in the event that they so select?

“You understand who induced hurt? The UFC did… to themselves. They went after a sick, disabled younger man with no penny to his identify who loves and helps the product.

“How does that make them look? It’s no marvel they had been so determined to place out that article to FOX Sports activities of me admitting I ‘did incorrect and apologized’.

“The UFC’s authorized crew must be taught concerning the web a bit extra and the way it works, however it appears they’ve some previous ass bozos…who additionally suffered from a failed authorized ideology.”

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White, who’s regarded as value $ 500 million and has estimated the UFC’s worth as being a minimum of $ 7 billion, had launched a scathing assault on pirates two years earlier than the settlement with Messina.

“Persons are getting busted and it is actual,” he instructed MMA Preventing, recounting the story of a bar proprietor in Canada who he mentioned had persuaded him to make attorneys “go simple” over a lawsuit after sending him pleading messages on Twitter.

“The identical f*cking guys who’re saying ‘why would you sue the followers?’ are going, ‘it’s best to pay the fighters extra.’ How the f*ck do you suppose this factor works?

“You’ve got obtained these guys on the market saying that they suppose it is OK to steal our sh*t on the web.

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“F*ck you – it isn’t OK, and sure, I am coming after you and we are going to f*cking sue you.”

Sports activities content material piracy has continued to be a sizzling subject since White’s phrases, most lately when the World Commerce Organisation discovered that high-level figures within the Saudi state had facilitated the operations of the pirate community BeoutQ, which illegally broadcasts Premier League matches and different main sporting occasions.

Saudi Arabia has appealed towards the ruling, which is believed to have been one of many explanation why the Saudi Public Funding Fund’s $ 370 million takeover of Premier League membership Newcastle fell by means of after months of uncertainty final week.

Messina added that he not pirates UFC occasions and has adopted a much less “cocky” strategy to web safety than he took as a 27-year-old, utilizing safety and encryption when he’s on-line.

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