UFC CEO Dana White has confirmed that the promotion is working closely with the FBI following suspicious betting patterns surrounding a fight at UFC Vegas 110. The bout in question saw heavily favoured featherweight Isaac Dulgarian lose to underdog Yadier del Valle via first-round submission on Saturday.
Speaking to TMZ on Tuesday, White revealed that IC360, the UFC’s betting integrity partner, alerted the promotion hours before the fight to unusual betting activity, with significant money placed on del Valle to win and on first-round prop bets. White said the UFC contacted Dulgarian and his lawyer to ask if he was injured, owed money, or had been approached to throw the fight, but Dulgarian denied any issues. After the fight ended in a first-round rear-naked choke, White stated, “Literally, the first thing we did was call the FBI.”
White met with the FBI twice on Tuesday, though no proof of match-fixing has been established. “It doesn’t look good, it definitely doesn’t look good,” he said. Dulgarian was released from the promotion on Sunday night. Multiple sportsbooks, including Caesars Sportsbook, announced they would refund bets placed on Dulgarian to win.
The UFC issued an official statement on Monday confirming that IC360 is conducting a thorough review of the bout. According to Uncrowned, the Nevada Athletic Commission is planning to withhold Dulgarian’s purse for the fight. This is not the first betting scandal in the UFC; in 2022, featherweight Darrick Minner was dismissed after a suspicious loss, and in 2015, South Korean lightweight Tae Hyun Bang received a prison sentence for his role in a fight-throwing scheme.
