UFC met with FBI over suspicious betting activity, says chief Dana White
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Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White (left) speaking with US President Donald Trump at the memorial service for political activist Charlie Kirk at State Farm Stadium on Sept 21, 2025 in Glendale, Arizona.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – With the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) potentially facing its second betting scandal in the past three years, chief executive officer Dana White told TMZ on Nov 4 that the promotion is in close contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after heavily favoured featherweight Isaac Dulgarian lost on Nov 1 at UFC Vegas 110.
Confirming reports from Uncrowned and Yahoo Sports, White said IC360, UFC’s betting integrity partner, alerted the UFC hours before Dulgarian’s featherweight fight against Yadier del Valle that the underdog was drawing plenty of betting action to win along with first-round proposition bets.
“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 said.
“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, who was dismissed from the promotion on Nov 2, was heavily favoured but appeared indifferent during the match before losing by submission.
Caesars Sportsbook was among several online bookmakers to announce on Nov 1 that it would refund the bets placed on Dulgarian to win.
As of yet, there is no proof that Dulgarian threw the match, but White – who met twice with the FBI on Nov 4 – said: “It doesn’t look good, it definitely doesn’t look good.”
In an official response on Nov 3, the UFC said IC360 “is conducting a thorough review of the facts surrounding the Dulgarian v del Valle bout” and is taking the allegations seriously.
Per Uncrowned, the Nevada Athletic Commission is planning to withhold Dulgarian’s purse for the fight in the wake of the alleged incident.
In 2022, a controversial first-round loss by featherweight Darrick Minner to Shayilan Nuerdanbieke led to Minner’s dismissal and suspensions for him and his coach James Krause.
Five years before that incident, Tae Hyun-bang, a South Korean lightweight, received a 10-month prison sentence for his roles in a plan to throw a fight against Leo Kuntz in a UFC card in South Korea in 2015.
In October 2025, Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cleveland Cavaliers player and assistant coach Damon Jones were charged after allegedly providing non-public information about National Basketball Association games to allow criminal partners to set up bets on the outcome of games, or performances of individual players through prop bets. REUTERS
