The UFC has stepped up efforts to derail any suspicious betting in the wake of several incidents that got the FBI involved to investigate potential fight fixing.
UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier vividly remembers one particular fight that he was calling that ended up being flagged, although he had no idea at the time what was going on. Providing color commentary during the broadcast, Cormier noted that he was unloading on a fighter for failing to even attempt the most basic moves to stay out of trouble on the ground.
Later that night, Cormier got the next that the fighter involved was under investigation from the FBI for possible fight fixing claims.
“One time they had a fight and they had a fight in the UFC APEX and this one dude was grappling,” Cormier explained on the In the Bayou podcast. “He was so horrible at grappling. I’m on the commentary, and I’m just going how in the world is this kid so bad. You are the largest organization. I’m literally just breaking him down because I’m like this technique is just not up to par. It’s just not up to snuff. He’s so bad. These are basic things that you be able to do and defend.
“Come to find out this dude was trying to throw the fight but not doing a good job of it. The whole time I’m just on him.”
Cormier says it wasn’t long after the fight ended that the UFC reached out to him to tell him what exactly happened.
“Then they call me and they were like ‘DC, the fact that you were calling him out and you had no idea what was going on,’” Cormier recounted. “But when the kid lost the way that he did, they took him in the back because the FBI [is already there].
“The FBI starts watching these betting lines, and if something looks off, they pull the fight. They’ve done that a number of times now.”
Cormier never noted which fight he was referencing, although it seems likely that he’s speaking about the matchup involving Isaac Dulgarian after he went from a favorite to the underdog on the betting lines before ultimately suffering a first-round submission loss.
Following the fight, which took place at the APEX, Dulgarian was released from the UFC roster, and he was eventually suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission for conduct deemed to “discredit to unarmed combat.”
Dulgarian denied any wrongdoing.
As far as the UFC’s efforts to stamp out repeated issues like what happened with Dulgarian, or other situations in the past, including a fight involving Darrick Minner that led to his release from the promotion and his coach James Krause being effectively banned from the sport, Cormier says that fight is never done.
“They’ve had guys weigh in and then the betting swings in one direction,” Cormier said. “So that makes people think maybe somebody’s injured, somebody has told somebody something, there’s something going on to make this line swing so much so the UFC pulls the fight. They don’t play with that shit.”
While fight fixing is a problem that can’t just be solved, Cormier noted how the UFC has gone above and beyond to ensure that the betting irregularities get flagged and the proper action is taking against the people involved.
“You have to keep it authentic,” Cormier said. “It has to be real.”
