Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White canceled a fight on the UFC 324 card in Las Vegas on Saturday night after an independent monitoring firm flagged suspicious betting line movement in the lead-up to the bout.
At a press conference after the event, in which Justin Gaethje beat Paddy Pimblett in the headline fight, White confirmed that the undercard matchup between Alexander Hernandez and Michael Johnson was pulled from the schedule over integrity concerns.
“That’s what it is,” he said when a reporter noted there were rumors that the cancelation was betting-related. “It happened again. We got called from the gaming integrity service, and I said, ‘I’m not doing this s— again, so we pulled the fight.”
Second suspicious incident in three months
White’s “it happened again” is a reference to an incident less than three months ago in which featherweight favorite Isaac Dulgarian was accused of throwing a fight against his underdog opponent Yadier del Valle. Sports betting watchdog Integrity Compliance 360 (IC360) flagged suspicious line movement before the fight, with unexpectedly high amounts of money being wagered on Del Valle to win and on the fight to finish in the first round.
In that case, UFC allowed the fight to go ahead, and Dulgarian lost via submission in round one. He was later released by UFC and the organization confirmed it was working with the FBI on an investigation.
White did not name IC360 as the betting monitor in question in the latest instance, but UFC has used IC360’s ProhiBet solution since 2023.
Not the first UFC betting scandals
The Dulgarian and Hernandez vs. Johnson incidents both occurred within the space of a few weeks but they are not the first times that UFC fights have raised betting integrity questions.
Former UFC fighter and coach James Krause was suspended in 2023 after unusual betting was detected on a fight involving one of his students, Darrick Minner, against Shayilan Nuerdanbiek. It was found that Minner failed to disclose a serious knee injury before the bout. Fellow fighter Jeff Molina had knowledge of the fitness issue and placed a large wager on the fight, which ended in a first-round win for Nuerdanbiek.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) suspended Minner and Molina following an investigation. Molina admitted placing a large bet with insider information. The investigation discovered ties between Molina, Minner and Krause.
Ontario briefly banned UFC wagering
Some gaming regulators have limited wagering on UFC in the past. The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) ordered all licensed sportsbooks in the Canadian province to stop offering bets on UFC events due to integrity concerns in late 2022, stating that UFC fights did not meet its betting integrity requirements.
The AGCO noted at the time that, contrary to its standards, UFC did not prohibit all insiders from betting on its events, which could include coaches, managers, trainers, medical professionals or other persons with access to non-public information. Ontario’s regulator began allowing bets on UFC again weeks later after the UFC introduced a new policy that explicitly banned all insiders from placing any wagers directly or through a third party on any UFC fight.
UFC embraces Polymarket in-stream ‘odds’
Meanwhile, prediction market platform Polymarket recently unveiled a deal which allows it to display event contract market insights during streams of fights, similar to the integrations some sports leagues or streaming platforms have with regulated sportsbooks. The UFC will integrate Polymarket odds into live broadcasts and show market activity during fights in a fan prediction scoreboard.
Once Polymarket officially relaunches in the U.S., its branding and data will be a core part of UFC and Zuffa Boxing events on UFC’s new home, Paramount+.
