UFC Gym Australia goes under

UFC Gym Australia, which at its peak had more than 10 fitness centres in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and the Gold Coast has gone under, with a number of disgruntled franchises shutting their doors. 

It comes after the gym’s parent company was ordered to pay over $5 million to several franchise owners after a messy four-year legal battle, according to news.com.au.

A trio of parent companies for UFC Gym Australia, a mixed martial arts gym franchise founded in 2009, went into voluntary administration on May 23.

It was a day after a court-imposed deadline for the parent companies and their directors to pay $5.2 million to three franchisees.

A court found the company and its directors had ‘engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct’ during the process of selling the franchises.

The judge found that the co-directors of UFC Gym Australia, Mazen Hagemrad and Samer Husseini, had claimed two of the franchises were profitable and provided profit forecasts, when reality they were losing money.

Karim Girgis, the former owner of UFC Balcatta in Perth — a co-owner of one of the three franchises that took the company to court and won — said he feels ‘quite dirty’ about the saga. 

‘The payment (of $5.2 million) was due on the 22nd. They went into administration on the 23rd,’ he told news.com.au.

Mr Girgis fears that he will not be able to recoup the money. Legal fees alone cost him and the other two business owners $850,000.

A UFC Gym Australia spokesperson said the company had appointed administrators because it was the ‘best option available’ to stabilise its financial situation and added ‘the company retains full confidence in the future’ of the brand’s continued survival in Australia.  

One of the directors is reportedly appealing the court judgement.