UFC CEO Dana White on Tuesday confirmed the timeline of events surrounding Isaac Dulgarian’s controversial loss this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 110 and said the UFC is actively working with the FBI as the promotion battles its second potential betting scandal of the past three years.
Speaking to TMZ in his first public comments on the matter, White confirmed Uncrowned and Yahoo Sports’ reporting that the UFC’s betting integrity partner, IC360, reached out to the promotion hours before Dulgarian’s featherweight bout against Yadier del Valle and informed the UFC of unusual betting action pouring in on the underdog del Valle, both to win and on first-round prop bets.
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“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?'” White explained. “And the kid said, ‘No, absolutely not. I’m going to kill this guy.’ So we said OK. The fight plays out — and first-round finish by rear-naked choke. Literally, the first thing we did was call the FBI.”
Dulgarian was cut from the UFC on Sunday night, sources told Uncrowned, following a bizarre first-round submission loss in which he seemingly mounted little resistance against del Valle. The suspicious performance caused multiple online sportsbooks, including Caesars Sportsbook, to announce Saturday night an intention to refund bets users placed on Dulgarian to win.
UFC issued an official response Monday stating that it takes “these allegations very seriously” and IC360 “is conducting a thorough review of the facts surrounding the Dulgarian vs. del Valle bout.” The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) subsequently moved to withhold the fight purse of now-former UFC featherweight Dulgarian following the questionable result, Uncrowned learned Monday.
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White said he met with the FBI twice Tuesday and had “an office full of FBI agents in here.” White called the notion of trying to fix fights in the UFC “absolutely insane” and said that while there is no proof yet of nefarious activity from Dulgarian, “It doesn’t look good, it definitely doesn’t look good.”
This is not the first gambling controversy to hit the UFC. Featherweight Darrick Minner was infamously cut by the promotion in 2022 following a similarly suspicious first-round loss to Shayilan Nuerdanbieke that resulted in lengthy NAC suspensions for both Minner and his coach, James Krause. Prior to that, South Korean lightweight Tae Hyun Bang was sentenced to 10 months in prison alongside three others involved in a scheme to throw a 2015 fight against Leo Kuntz at a UFC event held in South Korea.
Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani reported Monday that Dulgarian’s situation is “not an isolated incident” and that multiple UFC fighters informed him that they have “experienced situations where they have been approached about their willingness” to throw a fight for money. Several UFC fighters posted of such experiences Monday on social media, although a few have since walked back those claims.
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White called it “really weird that fighters are coming out now saying they were approached” to potentially throw a fight and said those fighters should expect to be “approached now by the FBI.”
Said White:
“If you try to do this, I’ve been very vocal and very open about this, we will be your worst enemy. We will immediately go after you, guns a-blazing, with the FBI and whoever 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 out on the internet where fighters are coming out and going, ‘Oh, I was approached, I was approached.’
Really? Why didn’t you tell us that? Or more importantly, why didn’t you tell law enforcement that you were approached? Now? Now you’re saying that you were approached? It’s like if somebody comes up and says, ‘Hey, I want you to rob a bank. I’m going to rob banks — want to rob a bank with me?’ And you don’t do it — what, you’re not going to tell law enforcement? It’s really weird that fighters are coming out now saying they were approached, and they’re going to be approached now by the FBI.”
