🐸 #24: The UFC's Betting Crisis: Did They Know About Fixed Fights?

Sup fellow degens, 

If you're anything like me, you've parlayed big sums of money on a +500 underdog a bit too many times than you should have.

But nothing puts your mood down more than realising the game's rigged from the jump and you never had a chance to win.

That’s what I’m here to talk about. This week, the UFC's shiny facade cracked wide open with multiple fighter confessions about fix offers, suspicious knockouts, and Dana White's finger-wagging pressers that can be summed up in “we didn’t know shit”.

Context

The recent Isaac Dulgarian vs. Yadier del Valle fight was basically a set-up clown show for idiots.

Whoever was behind it did a bad job making sure nobody was going to notice that the fight was rigged.

Right before the fight started, Dulgarian was the favorite at -285 to +240, but then some behind the curtains shenanigans happened and the odds tightened sharply to -130 to +100 which got attention of literally everyone, even blokes that don’t care about MMA.

Obviously, the FBI noticed that too.

UFC pressed the fighter but decided to carry on the fight even tho it was extremely suspicious.

The MMA fight proceeded as a WWE performance and Dulgarian caught a knee in the face and basically begged his opponent to submit him in the first round.

Right after the fight, multiple sportsbooks issued refunds to bettors post-fight due to suspicions.

Dana White also contacts FBI to have a talk about the situation.

This is where it gets interesting

When I first heard the news, my first thought was that UFC knew about this and it has probably been an issue with them for a long time. I’m not saying they are involved in rigged fights, but…they knew that it’s been happening right under their noses and they decided to close their eyes on it.

And then boom,

Vince Morales, Lando Vannata, Vanessa Demopoulos (all UFC fighters) came forward to speak about their experience in being offered to throw fights for money in one time or another. Who knows who else will speak.

Dana White goes on a rampage:

Brother, c’mon. We’re not babies eating mashed peas in a high chair.

When you run a billion-dollar combat league in a gambling-obsessed era, you will be aware of someone trying to fix your fighters.

So what now?

People think the crisis is “fight fixing” when it actually is a bit deeper than that.

The crisis is trust in the odds.

When bettors stop trusting the markets, the markets break. The UFC can’t afford that, the books can’t afford that, and we sure as hell can’t.

This is the future now:

If you’re here to gamble — not hope — this is actually good. Integrity tools don’t kill edges. They kill chaos.

And chaos only helps people who already know the script.

I’m only for fair degeneracy and that’s the end of the story.

UFC fix your shit, I wanna place some bets.

TL;DR: A recent UFC fight sparked controversy after dramatic pre-fight betting line movement and a questionable finish led sportsbooks to issue refunds and the UFC to involve authorities. Several fighters have since said they've been approached about throwing fights. As scrutiny rises, gambling edges shrink, information becomes king, and chaos gets punished. Fair degeneracy only.

Stay degen,

Dima