Dana White wasted absolutely no time looping in the FBI after a suspicious fight result at a recent UFC Fight Night event. It looks like the UFC’s worst nightmare regarding fight fixing came true, and now the organization is taking serious action to make sure to stamp out any corruption.
This whole mess centers on Isaac Dulgarian, who was a pretty solid betting favorite at -250 heading into his bout against Yadier Del Valle this past Saturday. Shockingly, Dulgarian ended up losing the fight quickly in the first round via a rear-naked choke submission. While upsets happen all the time in the UFC, this specific result, combined with some seriously weird activity earlier in the day, raised immediate red flags for the UFC President, per TMZ.
Honestly, if you’re running a massive sports league, you can’t let something like this slide, and I’m glad Dana White (owner of power slap league) went straight to the top. White recently opened up about the whole scandal and explained the exact timeline of events that forced his hand. The UFC works closely with a company called IC360, which is basically the best bet monitoring service in the business.
UFC just stopped a big issue by going to the FBI
Around one o’clock on the day of the fight, IC360 reached out to the UFC to warn them about some seriously “unusual action” centered on the Dulgarian-Del Valle matchup. This is where things get really bad for Dulgarian. According to the monitoring company, a massive amount of money was placed not just on Dulgarian to lose, but for him to lose specifically by submission in the first round. That level of specificity is terrifying for the integrity of the sport.
Dana White explained the immediate steps they took once they got the alert, and just like he was in Joe Rogan’s ear, he was in the FBI’s ear soon after.. The UFC didn’t know anything about a potential fix, so they reached out to the fighter and his lawyer right away. They needed to ask the hard questions: Was Dulgarian injured? Did he owe anybody money? Had someone approached him with a proposition?
White said he asked Dulgarian directly about the situation, and the fighter denied everything vehemently. White recalled the fighter’s response, saying he claimed, “No, absolutely not. I’m going to kill this guy.”
The UFC had to say “okay” and let the fight proceed, but you can imagine the tension in the room. When the bout ended exactly as the suspicious bets predicted a first-round submission finish by rear-naked choke Dana White knew they had a major problem on their hands.
White stated unequivocally, “Literally the first thing we did was call the FBI.” IC360 co-founder Scott Sadin also confirmed that the signs they spotted were serious enough to warrant contacting the UFC immediately. This is awful for the sport, but it’s great that the monitoring systems are working exactly as intended.
The consequences for Dulgarian were swift and severe. He has already been cut by the UFC, and the FBI investigation is moving forward. White confirmed that he has already met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation twice this week and has also spoken directly with Director Kash Patel.
Published: Nov 6, 2025 03:32 pm