UFC CEO Dana White is keeping a close eye on very serious allegations surrounding one of his fights this past weekend.
Accusations of a fight being fixed have been the main talk of the MMA world in recent days, with the FBI launching an investigation into Yadier del Valle vs. Isaac Dulgarian – a fight that saw an odd and vast betting line movement hours before it happened. Dulgarian, a heavy favorite in the matchup, lost by first-round submission – the first stoppage loss of his career. The fight took place at UFC Fight Night 263 at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
White received a sign that something was up before the bout, and the result itself only furthered the suspicion, which prompted him to take immediate action.
“Probably about 1 o’clock that day, we’re with a company called IC 360, and they are the best bet monitoring company in the business. They reached out to us, and they told us that there was some unusual action going on with that fight – did we know anything, we didn’t,” White told TMZ on Tuesday. “So what we did was, we called the fighter and his lawyer, and said, ‘What’s going on? There’s some weird action going on in your bet, some weird betting action going on with 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 first round finish by rear-naked choke. Literally, the first thing we did was call the FBI. So we called the FBI, I’ve met with the FBI twice today, so that’s the whole thing.”
The suspicion of del Valle vs. Dulgarian potentially being fixed caused many to begin putting in doubt past results in the UFC. White assures that they, along with IC 360, follow closely every fight and there’s no foul play elsewhere.
“People are out there talking, ‘Oh, hundreds of fights under investigation.’ It’s total bullsh*t. Usual, clickbait bullsh*t,” White said. “IC 360, our company, they monitor all of the betting. Like I said, they are the best in the business. There aren’t hundreds of fights being investigated. All clickbait BS.”
Dulgarian has yet to be found guilty of any illegal act. White says they have yet to find any proof in the investigation, but things aren’t looking good for Dulgarian.
“I’m not saying this kid is guilty,” White said. “There is no proof that he’s done this yet, but I can tell you this: it doesn’t look good. It definitely doesn’t look good.”
White says the UFC and FBI will continue to monitor and investigate the situation. He sends a stern warning to any fighters or outside players on fight fixing.
“If you try to do this, I’ve been very vocal and very open about this: we will be your worst enemy,” White said. “We will immediately go after you, guns ablazing, with the FBI and whoever else we need to get. We will do everything we can to make sure you go to prison.”
On Monday, MMA Junkie also confirmed with sources following a report by Uncrowned that Dulgarian was released from his contract with the promotion. Dulgarian went 2-2 in the UFC and was considered a bright prospect heading into UFC Fight Night 263. Prior to joining the UFC in 2023, he had a 6-0 start to his professional fighting career, with all stoppage wins.
Dulgarian fought out of Factory X in Colorado. The head coach of the gym, Marc Montoya, confirmed on Tuesday that he has cut ties with Dulgarian over the allegations and assured that he was unaware of any foul play.
Prior to training with Factory X, Dulgarian was training at Glory MMA & Fitness with former UFC fighter James Krause, who was involved in the biggest betting scandal in MMA. The UFC banned fighters from associating with Krause in 2022. White said the new issue surrounding Dulgarian will be lumped in with the Krause investigation.
