Copyright CBS Sports
Fighter Isaac Dulgarian created quite the firestorm of controversy this past weekend in the UFC. The fighter, who lost by first-round submission to Yadier del Valle, had suspicious betting activity linked to his bout where he entered as a sizable favorite before the number dropped significantly. UFC president Dana White said on Tuesday that the FBI is looking into everything that happened at the UFC Apex on Saturday night. Dulgarian was listed by sportsbooks as a solid favorite at roughly -250 to defeat del Valle as of Saturday morning. As the fight drew near, Dulgarian's moneyline dropped all the way to anywhere from nearly -170 to -130. That kind of severe line movement in such a short time indicates large amounts of money coming in, and is highly unusual. IC360 notified its clients, including UFC, on Saturday to a suspicious amount of wagers on del Valle to win in the first round, according to ESPN. Dulgarian shot for a single takedown attempt at the start of the fight and did little else before he was submitted by rear-naked choke at the 3:41 mark of the first round, cashing the aforementioned wagers on underdog del Valle to win in the first round. After the fight, some sportsbooks informed customers that they would receive credit for wagers placed on Dulgarian. After releasing Dulgarian, the UFC released a statement regarding IC360's investigation. "Like many professional sports organizations, UFC works with an independent betting integrity service to monitor wagering activity on our events," the statement read. "Our betting integrity partner, IC360, monitors wagering on every UFC event and is conducting a thorough review of the facts surrounding the Dulgarian vs. del Valle bout on Saturday, November 1. We take these allegations very seriously, and along with the health and safety of our fighters, nothing is more important than the integrity of our sport." UFC CEO Dana White spoke to TMZ and clarified when the promotion was notified of the suspicious betting activity, and the promotion's response when the fight played out as it did. "Probably about 1 p.m. that day ... we're with a company called IC360, and they are the best bet monitoring company in the business ... they reached out to us and told us that there was some unusual action going on with that fight and did we know anything," White said. "We didn't. So what we did was, we called the fighter and his lawyer and said, 'What's going on? There's some weird betting action going on in your fight. Are you injured? Do you owe anybody money? Has anybody approached you?' And the kid said, 'No, absolutely not. I'm going to kill this guy.' "So we said, 'OK,' the fight plays out and it's a first-round finish by rear-naked choke. Literally the first thing we did was call the FBI. We called the FBI, I met with the FBI twice today, so, that's the whole thing." Since the fight, rumors have spread online that the FBI had started an investigation into over 100 UFC fights as a probe into fight fixing. White denied those reports. "There are people out there talking now, 'Oh there's hundreds of fights,'" White said. "That's total bullshit. Total clickbait bullshit. IC360, our company, they monitor all of the betting, like I said, they're the best in the business. There aren't hundreds of fights being investigated. All clickbait BS." White went on to say that IC360 produces a betting report for every fight the promotion puts on. This is not the first situation involving potential fight fixing in the UFC. Darrick Minner was cut by the UFC in 2022 after losing a fight that saw similar suspicious line movement. Minner and his coach, James Krause, also received suspensions from the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Tae Hyun Bang was sentenced to 10 months in prison in South Korea after accepting a bribe to throw a 2015 fight against Leo Kuntz. Bang allegedly wagered money on Kuntz to win, though Bang ultimately won the fight by split decision. White said that the investigation into Dulgarian's fight is now tied to the ongoing investigation into the 2022 situation involving Minner and Krause, saying, "When this did happen a couple of years ago, whenever it was, that investigation is still ongoing. That will be a part of this investigation, too." As the controversy has taken hold on social media, several current and former UFC fighters made statements that they'd been approached about throwing fights. While most of those allegations have since been deleted, or explained away as "jokes," White made it clear that those fighters can now expect a conversation with the FBI. "I talked to [Director of the FBI Kash Patel] this morning," White said. "We just had an office full of FBI agents in here. If you try to do this, I've been very vocal and open about this; we will be your worst enemy. We will immediately go after you guns blazin', with the FBI and whoever else we need to get, and we will do everything we can to make sure you go to prison. "It's like, you're seeing things on the Internet where fighters are saying, 'Oh, I was approached! I was approached!' Really? Why didn't you tell us that? More importantly, why didn't you tell law enforcement you were approached? Now? Now you're saying that you were approached? ... It's really weird that fighters are coming out now saying they were approached. They're going to be approached now ... by the FBI."
