Was there cheating in the UFC? Weekend tournament bout under investigation for suspicious betting

The UFC has another hilarious unranked tournament under its belt. However, they have a big unpleasantness to deal with. One fight has come under the scrutiny of the authorities investigating betting fraud. What was supposed to happen?

This weekend’s UFC gala offered some interesting fights. One, however, raised some unpleasant suspicions. And that was Darrick Minner’s surprising fight with Shayilan Nuerdanbiek, who was the third highest ranked fighter on the main card.

The fight lasted only one minute and seven seconds. The American injured his leg during one of the kicks, but still committed to another. Then it didn’t take long for his Chinese opponent to win by TKO.

Now ESPN has reported that the entire fight is being investigated by an American betting integrity firm. In fact, in the final hours before the fight, the odds of the Chinese fighter winning were about to start changing dramatically.

All this was reportedly despite the fact that the odds on the Chinese fighter’s victory kept dropping to unattractive levels.

“The bookies seemed to be convinced that not only would Neurdanbieke win, but that he would even make it past the first round. Big money has been placed on him winning by TKO in the first round,” BJPenn.com added for good measure.

The initiative to probe the whole situation came from the bookies themselves. They have contacted the U.S. Integrity Bureau, which is in charge of betting scams. This authority immediately proceeded to conduct a thorough analysis.

“Our goal, as always, is to alert the industry as soon as possible to any potential malicious, abnormal or suspicious activity. We hope that by reporting a few hours before the game started, we were able to prevent some of the other suspicious bets from getting through,” Matthew Holt, president of U.S. Integrity, told EPSN.

It’s certainly worth noting that Minner’s trainer is James Krause, a former UFC fighter and renowned sports bettor. He even has his own podcast and Discord channel, which features betting tips.

According to American media, Krause refused to comment on the situation.

Source: UFC, BJPenn.com, ESPN