News Multiple Fighters Confirm They’ve Been Asked to Fix Fights in Another Black Eye for UFC

[usernamee]

It's funny because before if you ever made any suggestive thread of a fixed fight, the mods would almost always automatically delete it or wasteland it.

OH
MY
GOD


THE MODS ARE THE FIGHT FIXERS

 

[Söze Aldo]

It's funny because before if you ever made any suggestive thread of a fixed fight, the mods would almost always automatically delete it or wasteland it.

Most of those accusations are still BS, though, since they mostly involve main card fights people thought were rigged.

These fighters who have been reached out to fix, are all prelim level fighters. You're more likely to take a dive for gambling profits when you're being paid 10k for the actual fight, than any of the main card payouts.

 

[KoalaBear]

Why would anyone try to fake a 15 min fight, who benefits?

i don't know ask them theyre the ones that weren't fighting. prob both agreed to take a chill pill cause it was such a dangerous fight

 

[MetalMilitia]

Yeah, we don't know how much of this stuff actually happened, but it's clear that some of it has- too much smoke for no fire at all. If multiple fighters have been asked to throw fights, the odds are actually low that there aren't poor (financially struggling) and low-level fighters that have taken it for the gains that were being offered. The lower-level UFC fighters are a uniquely good target for crooks because they don't get paid shit. If even rich sports figures in the NBA will get greedy and be cheats, you know lower-level guys are that much more likely.

The question gets even more serious when it comes to any involvement by the UFC or those who could influence the UFC. In a high percentage of the old works in boxing, the promoters were involved in some way. It was very common in olden times for fighters to have to throw a fight to become relevant to promoters so that they could even hope to get a title fight. That is allegedly what happened with Coleman in Pride- he threw the fight with Takada to get a PRIDE contract (that was his first fight out of the UFC). That would make Dana and the UFC's pay practices look far eviler than they currently do (which is saying something)- keeping fighters at low pay to maximize their willingness to do works. We don't, of course, know this is true right now, but all of this smoke does not look good.

Most fights are real -- 'dat blood, sweat and brain fog. Or rather -- brain matter of the scrambled variety doesn't lie. -- But once fans start thinking “was that WWE’d?” the illusion cracks. It fuckin' sucks for the legitimacy of things.

I don't think it's rampant, but yer spot on with someone choosing to fix when convenient -- be it a friend, coach, large bet interest -- or "rich fuck" in general that is bored like it's "diggstown"

Hear me out now -- maybe it's time we parlay in "by death" rather than "by decision" -- you really wanna remove biased and corrupt scoring -- holy shit, there's the solution.

Aw, c'mon. Don't get all humanity on me now goddammit

 

[gentel]

Only 1 out of 26 media scores had it for O'Malley. 7 of them had 30-27 for Yan. You gave just the striking numbers in a fight where Yan had 6 TDs and 6 minutes of control time in a 15 minute fight.

Sean O'Malley def. Petr Yan :: UFC 280 :: MMA Decisions

mmadecisions.com

I call this the aura effect - fighters like Jones and Yan are "killers" so viewers have that confirmation bias that they are in control of the fight and landing more damaging shots

The control time doesn't matter because the fight hinges on R1, where the only grappling was a tiny bit of Yan trying to secure top position with a couple of small body shots before O'Malley escaped. In terms of who did more damage that round, O'Malley for sure

Really the fact that 7 of them scored it 30-27 Yan is more of an argument for why those scorecards shouldn't be trusted - O'Malley beat the brakes off of Yan in the 3rd round and it was not a close round at all, so the fact that 7 media scores gave it to Yan shows how absurdly biased they are

If you scored the fight as a whole there's a reasonable argument Yan won it because of how well he did in the 2nd round. But round-by-round, O'Malley won the 1st and 3rd

 

[xhaydenx]

Honest question, why is it a scandal or an issue for the UFC? They're not the ones fixing fights, and they can't control who offers what to their fighters.

If we found out that the UFC was telling fighters to take a dive, yeah, that'd be a bombshell. But I'm pretty sure that's not what's happening here.

There's no chance the UFC are involved in any sort of fixing, but even so, it still looks bad for their PR image.

That was the jab I threw was at the people with so much money, they literally don't give a shit. Stopping them or reporting it, like a lot of other sports have protocol for, makes the most sense. -- The stories coming out like this and w/ RosenRef are brutal to the legitimacy of things.

Wasn't it the Olympic team, fuckin -- badmitten (spell check loves that) BADMINTON -- where the teams were throwing shit to get favorable matches? It just sucks that genuine competition can be replaced in theory.

I don't think the UFC ever would -- but when yer talking people with more money than god to spend that could give a shit less, then it sadly might lean into that kind of "influence"

Maybe it's time to just go for Shamrocks idea with "living death" on the line?

UFC never would do this shit. The money they would lose when they got found out would never be worth it, and it'd only take one fight to fuck them hard. Like, say there's some fight that makes them 50 mil and they fix it and get caught. They're gonna lose way more than 50 mil as a result. Their image and stock price would take a crazy hit. They'd probably lose broadcasting and other deals, and they'd be cheaper to buy going forward.

 

[MetalMilitia]

There's no chance the UFC are involved in any sort of fixing, but even so, it still looks bad for their PR image.




UFC never would do this shit. The money they would lose when they got found out would never be worth it, and it'd only take one fight to fuck them hard. Like, say there's some fight that makes them 50 mil and they fix it and get caught. They're gonna lose way more than 50 mil as a result. Their image and stock price would take a crazy hit. They'd probably lose broadcasting and other deals, and they'd be cheaper to buy going forward.

Yeah I don't think any of it is "rampant" -- gotta keep in mind the media loves blowing small shit completely outta proportion to reality.

I would just stick with report it and take a stand on it. It's horse shit because the 10k/10k fighter could literally take the dive and make infinitely more money on doing so. Not many would be the wiser.

I've bet on dudes in local competitions and myself in pool tourneys -- openly, saying "fuck you, I will out drink you and take yer money" -- so my view of fixing shit is a bit jaded. It's mainly in jest and highly irrelevant, but once in a while some other dude would be like -- "ok, $10 spot on the white dude" .

I never considered taking a dive, even at those low standards

 

[JKS]

Conor vs Mendes was definitely rigged. Mendes controlled Conor on the ground for almost a round. When Conor landed one knockdown punch the referee immediately declared a TKO.

This is just stupidity.

 

[Girubgez]

Yeh, I remember that one.

The thing with Tae is that he was a can that never put 2 wins together in the UFC and was never going anywhere. Him taking part in that to get some cash on the way out isn't too outlandish. Someone like Dulgarian who was a 7-1 highly touted prospect and who had just bounced back from a split loss seems way more unlikely to me.

Like, why throw away your whole career if you're Dulgarian over some chump change you're likely never going to be able to actually collect?

In fact, I thought the previous fight at this tournament was far more suspicious - when the favorite struggled with the dog for three rounds and finally choked him out in the third.

The premise was as follows:

The underdog easily defended himself against the same choke in the first round for over a minute, all the while gesturing "no, no, nothing will happen" - he did everything correctly, took his hands off and lay there calmly, even though his back was taken. What followed was a mere scuffle, in which it was clear the loser had no problems with his gas tank. The favorite controlled the fight and the scuffle, but couldn't do much. If anything, the dog seemed to have more gas than the favorite, rather than equal. And then, miraculously, in the third round, the underdog forgot how to defend himself against the choke he'd previously easily choked off, and instead of defending himself against another attempt, he just spread his arms, waited, and tapped. A submission from the favorite in the 3rd round - the odds are crazy lol, even just a finish from the favorite in the 3rd round.

Whaddya think?

 

[xhaydenx]

Yeah I don't think any of it is "rampant" -- gotta keep in mind the media loves blowing small shit completely outta proportion to reality.

I would just stick with report it and take a stand on it. It's horse shit because the 10k/10k fighter could literally take the dive and make infinitely more money on doing so. Not many would be the wiser.

I've bet on dudes in local competitions and myself in pool tourneys -- openly, saying "fuck you, I will out drink you and take yer money" -- so my view of fixing shit is a bit jaded. It's mainly in jest and highly irrelevant, but once in a while some other dude would be like -- "ok, $10 spot on the white dude" .

I never considered taking a dive, even at those low standards

The thing with gambling now is that a 10/10k fighter can't really take a dive for any sort of money that is worth it and get away with it.

Dulgarian is a great example. For him, he would need to be making a fuck ton of cash for this to risk his whole career and future pay with the UFC. No one in their right mind would be doing this for small money unless they're about to quit the sport anyway. Even then, it's not worth it on a big stage because you could end up in jail lol.

And for the people doing the actual fixing, it's not that easy or worth it either. You're not going to risk jail time for like a 100k profit or anything. You want way more than that or what's the point? So, that means you have to bet huge on the fights your fixing. The problem with that now is that literally every bookie that will take any sort of decent amount of money also has whole teams that exist purely to make sure no one is trying to fuck around with them like that.

Like, you put even a 10k bet on with a bookie then that's immediately flagged as something to look at. A bunch of smaller bets all at the same time on a specific thing is also getting looked at. They said a bunch of dormant sharp accounts were suddenly active and betting on the Dulgarian fight, so even that was picked up right away. And bookies don't need to have people constantly watching and maybe missing something because it's all automated now.

 

[xhaydenx]

In fact, I thought the previous fight at this tournament was far more suspicious - when the favorite struggled with the dog for three rounds and finally choked him out in the third.

The premise was as follows:

The underdog easily defended himself against the same choke in the first round for over a minute, all the while gesturing "no, no, nothing will happen" - he did everything correctly, took his hands off and lay there calmly, even though his back was taken. What followed was a mere scuffle, in which it was clear the loser had no problems with his gas tank. The favorite controlled the fight and the scuffle, but couldn't do much. If anything, the dog seemed to have more gas than the favorite, rather than equal. And then, miraculously, in the third round, the underdog forgot how to defend himself against the choke he'd previously easily choked off, and instead of defending himself against another attempt, he just spread his arms, waited, and tapped. A submission from the favorite in the 3rd round - the odds are crazy lol, even just a finish from the favorite in the 3rd round.

Whaddya think?

I think it's way too complicated and risky for everyone involved to be trying to fix a fight that way. You're risking jail time, so you have to make huge bets to make it worth it, and you're not getting those sorts of bets on anywhere that doesn't have whole teams that instantly notice this sort of behavior.

That right you described, it may not be normal, but I've seen enough fights play out like that to make me think it wouldn't be fixing.

 

[Killer Kadoogan]

How has this got anything to do with the UFC? Is the UFC approaching them themselves, no.

i think you'd be a fool to be able to believe the UFC is innocent. the degrees of separation are few.

 

[usernamee]

I think it's way too complicated and risky for everyone involved to be trying to fix a fight that way. You're risking jail time, so you have to make huge bets to make it worth it, and you're not getting those sorts of bets on anywhere that doesn't have whole teams that instantly notice this sort of behavior.

That right you described, it may not be normal, but I've seen enough fights play out like that to make me think it wouldn't be fixing.

Yeah it just sounds like a fucking nightmare to do nowadays. Have to also pray to sweet Jesus that you are able to withdraw the money afterwards if you actually did manage to get enough cash in on it.

 

[MetalMilitia]

The thing with gambling now is that a 10/10k fighter can't really take a dive for any sort of money that is worth it and get away with it.

Dulgarian is a great example. For him, he would need to be making a fuck ton of cash for this to risk his whole career and future pay with the UFC. No one in their right mind would be doing this for small money unless they're about to quit the sport anyway. Even then, it's not worth it on a big stage because you could end up in jail lol.

And for the people doing the actual fixing, it's not that easy or worth it either. You're not going to risk jail time for like a 100k profit or anything. You want way more than that or what's the point? So, that means you have to bet huge on the fights your fixing. The problem with that now is that literally every bookie that will take any sort of decent amount of money also has whole teams that exist purely to make sure no one is trying to fuck around with them like that.

Like, you put even a 10k bet on with a bookie then that's immediately flagged as something to look at. A bunch of smaller bets all at the same time on a specific thing is also getting looked at. They said a bunch of dormant sharp accounts were suddenly active and betting on the Dulgarian fight, so even that was picked up right away. And bookies don't need to have people constantly watching and maybe missing something because it's all automated now.

That's somewhat what I was eluding to -- the flags that go up along the way.

Good explanation/breakdown sir.

 

[lagofala]

The thing with gambling now is that a 10/10k fighter can't really take a dive for any sort of money that is worth it and get away with it.

Dulgarian is a great example. For him, he would need to be making a fuck ton of cash for this to risk his whole career and future pay with the UFC. No one in their right mind would be doing this for small money unless they're about to quit the sport anyway. Even then, it's not worth it on a big stage because you could end up in jail lol.

And for the people doing the actual fixing, it's not that easy or worth it either. You're not going to risk jail time for like a 100k profit or anything. You want way more than that or what's the point? So, that means you have to bet huge on the fights your fixing. The problem with that now is that literally every bookie that will take any sort of decent amount of money also has whole teams that exist purely to make sure no one is trying to fuck around with them like that.

Like, you put even a 10k bet on with a bookie then that's immediately flagged as something to look at. A bunch of smaller bets all at the same time on a specific thing is also getting looked at. They said a bunch of dormant sharp accounts were suddenly active and betting on the Dulgarian fight, so even that was picked up right away. And bookies don't need to have people constantly watching and maybe missing something because it's all automated now.

Perhaps Dulgarian was in a jam and needed a quick payday and then someone in the gambling org fucked up with the tip.

 

[Poirierfan]

Mendes never complained. He was gassed as hell from those body kicks

It's like some people don't realize Mendez was out hunting and drinking 2 weeks before the fight when he got the call.

 

[Skarsgard]

I regret to inform you Jose Aldo was most certainly unconscious.


This is what I mean about throwing around baseless accusations. Useless water muddying.

Did the UFC tip the scales a bit with a worldwide press tour for the greatest shit talker in the sport vs a guy who barely spoke English? Most definitely.
Was the fight fixed? No, obviously not. Jose Aldo goes unconscious right there in front of you to prove it.

Yeah, this claim was always dumb. This was a case of the better fighter fighting stupid and losing for it.

 

[Chaotic Progressor]

Conor vs Mendes was definitely rigged. Mendes controlled Conor on the ground for almost a round. When Conor landed one knockdown punch the referee immediately declared a TKO.

Conor got a lot of early TKO calls, like as soon as someone went down = TKO. But, I think this could be less explicit rigging and more just like... it benefits everyone, including Herb Dean (as probably higher paid work for him) at the time for this guy to become the star, so everybody just has a natural biased of wanting him to win. But, if they were fixing Conor's rise explicitly, they wouldn't have had him submitted in r2 by Nate Diaz, then have him win a close decision; in reality it wasn't as close as people pretend, but any time Conor didn't knock anyone out back then = loss or 'close', he pieced Nate up for most of the fight and had him down... twice?.

 

[Chaotic Progressor]

It's like some people don't realize Mendez was out hunting and drinking 2 weeks before the fight when he got the call.

Plus he put a lot of energy into the ground n pound. And split Conor's face open, he was probably pretty fatigued after that tryna finish him.

 

[mkess101]

The thing with gambling now is that a 10/10k fighter can't really take a dive for any sort of money that is worth it and get away with it.

Dulgarian is a great example. For him, he would need to be making a fuck ton of cash for this to risk his whole career and future pay with the UFC. No one in their right mind would be doing this for small money unless they're about to quit the sport anyway. Even then, it's not worth it on a big stage because you could end up in jail lol.

And for the people doing the actual fixing, it's not that easy or worth it either. You're not going to risk jail time for like a 100k profit or anything. You want way more than that or what's the point? So, that means you have to bet huge on the fights your fixing. The problem with that now is that literally every bookie that will take any sort of decent amount of money also has whole teams that exist purely to make sure no one is trying to fuck around with them like that.

Like, you put even a 10k bet on with a bookie then that's immediately flagged as something to look at. A bunch of smaller bets all at the same time on a specific thing is also getting looked at. They said a bunch of dormant sharp accounts were suddenly active and betting on the Dulgarian fight, so even that was picked up right away. And bookies don't need to have people constantly watching and maybe missing something because it's all automated now.

So yes...but those algorithms that picked that up also tell us in this case someone WAS seemingly dumb enough to think they'd get away with it. They not only got all sorts of late action from dormant accounts on Del Valle, they got a bunch of action on Del Valle rd 1.

You're absolutely right that people thinking they can get enough down on these prelim fights (especially props with +700 odds or whatever) are idiots. Even large books aren't going to accept huge exposure on something they normally don't get much action on--for this exact reason. It tells you plenty that even the amount they did accept set off all their red flags. They have automated systems looking at EVERYTHING.