Dana White says he met with FBI after suspicious betting on UFC fight

LAS VEGAS — The UFC is working with the FBI on an investigation into suspicious betting activity before a fight Saturday night in Las Vegas.

UFC president Dana White told TMZ that he spoke with FBI director Kash Patel on Tuesday and twice met with the FBI about a possible fixed fight between featherweights Isaac Dulgarian and Yadier del Valle on UFC Fight Night at the UFC Apex.

“We just had an office full of FBI agents in here,” White said Tuesday.

Dulgarian dropped from a -250 favorite to -150 in the hours before the fight and lost by first-round submission in a performance that was heavily criticized. Multiple sportsbooks took the fight and props off the board and refunded losing wagers on the bout.

White said he questioned Dulgarian before the fight when the UFC was alerted to abnormal betting activity by sports betting monitor Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360).

“(IC360) reached out to us, and they told us there was some unusual action going on with that fight, and (asked) do we know anything?” White said. “We didn’t. So 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. First-round finish by rear-naked choke. Literally, the first thing we did was call the FBI.”

The UFC released Dulgarian from his contract after its second betting controversy in three years.

Featherweight Darrick Minner also was cut by the UFC in 2022 after a similar situation in which his first-round loss to Shayilan Nuerdanbieke was flagged for suspicious betting activity. Minner and his coach, James Krause, were suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission.

“That investigation is still ongoing, and that will be a part of this investigation, too,” White said.

But White strongly denied that these incidents are part of a much larger problem.

“Now people are out there talking there’s hundreds of (suspicious) fights. That’s total bull----. Total usual clickbait bull----,” White said. “There aren’t hundreds of fights being investigated. All clickbait BS.

“We get a report after every single fight that we do. We take this very serious. We’re watching every single fight that happens in the UFC, from the first prelim to the main event.”

White added that “fight fixing is absolutely insane.”

“If you try to do this, and I’ve been very vocal and open about this, we will be your worst enemy,” he said. “We will immediately go after you, guns blazing, with the FBI and whoever else we need to get, and we will do everything we can to make sure you go to prison.

“I’m not saying this kid’s guilty. There’s 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.’”