Chael Sonnen needs to know who’s asking UFC fighters to take a dive.
Following one more betting scandal within the Octagon, a number of athletes have come out of the woodwork, revealing that they’ve been supplied massive sums of cash to repair fights. Amongst them is Vince Morales, who claims he was supplied $70,000 to throw a battle.
Flyweight standout Vanessa Demopoulos additionally claimed that she was supplied cash to repair a battle, although “her integrity may by no means.”
With so many fighters being approached, Sonnen needs to know who precisely is attempting to repair fights on MMA’s largest stage.
“Vince Morales claims that he was supplied $70,000 to repair a battle, and quite a lot of fighters got here out,” Sonnen mentioned on his YouTube channel. “I’m simply providing Vince’s title as a jumping-off level. A few feminine fighters got here out and mentioned they had been supplied cash to repair fights. Vince was most fascinating to me as a result of he had a particular quantity.
“Lots of the opposite fighters that got here out with allegations that they had been paid to take a dive, it was a bit extra of a broad stroke. And I’d say whoever talked to Vince was critical. If they’d the cash labored out, there was most likely even quite a lot of different particulars.”
UFC CEO involved with FBI relating to fight-fixing allegations
Three years after the James Krause scandal rocked the UFC, the promotion is as soon as once more coping with playing shenanigans after the promotion’s betting integrity agency, IC360, detected uncommon line motion an hour earlier than Isaac Dulgarian’s prelim conflict in opposition to Yadier del Valle at UFC Vegas 110. Dulgarian was listed as a strong -250 favourite going into the day, however by the point he’d stepped contained in the Octagon, these odds dropped to -150 after a collection of bets got here in favoring del Valle.
Dulgarian misplaced the battle by way of a first-round submission.
“[IC360] reached out to us and advised us that there was some uncommon motion happening with that battle,” White advised TMZ. “‘Do we all know something?’ We didn’t. So what we did was name the fighter and his lawyer and mentioned, ‘What’s happening? There’s some bizarre motion happening together with your [fight] — bizarre betting motion happening together with your battle. Are you injured? Do you owe anyone cash? Has anyone approached you to, …’ And the child mentioned, ‘No, completely not. I’m gonna kill this man.’ So we mentioned, ‘OK’”
Regardless of clear indicators that one thing wasn’t proper, the UFC allowed the battle to maneuver ahead as scheduled.
“Actually the very first thing we did was name the FBI,” White mentioned in regards to the moments after the battle. “So we known as the FBI. I’ve met with the FBI twice in the present day.”
Dulgarian was in the end launched from the promotion following the battle, and White issued a stern warning to anybody doubtlessly concerned in fixing fights.
“You recognize, seeing issues out on the web the place fighters are popping out going, ‘Oh, I used to be approached.’ Actually? Why didn’t you inform us that, or extra importantly, inform legislation enforcement that you just had been approached?” White mentioned. “They’re gonna be approached now by the FBI.”
