Suspicious Betting Patterns in UFC Fight Prompt Investigation

The fight ended as initially expected, as Minner was the underdog anyway. However, with how specific the leaked information was, and bets continuing heavily even after the unfavorable change, there allegedly might be room for some illegal activities to be uncovered.

Independent Investigation Underway

The leadup to the fight between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke saw rumors about Minner being injured which affected Nuerdanbieke’s odds to win. The match between them on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night ended just a minute into the first round. Minner was the underdog and quickly following the rumors Nuerdanbieke’s odds to win moved from -220 to -420 just hours before the fight’s start, which prompted an investigation.

An ESPN report cited an unnamed source close to Minner’s camp who claims that his knee was indeed injured and he shouldn’t have been fighting at all. This is still not enough grounds to talk about fight fixing, however, as this would require that Minner intentionally throws the fight, which is a bit more difficult to prove or refute. If word got out, however, and that changed the odds, this is still sufficient for an investigation to probe deeper.

As suspicions by sportsbooks grew, the betting market monitoring firm U.S. Integrity did an analysis of the situation, ESPN’s report says. According to that analysis, betting heavily increased in the 3 hours leading up to the fight, and continued well after the worse odds were updated. This does fall in line with the assumption that there has indeed been leaked inside information about Minner’s health, however since the investigation is still ongoing, U.S. Integrity cannot share more information.

Internal Investigations, Speculation

Yahoo Sports was among the first to receive UFC’s statement on Sunday, according to which the organization is also looking into the situation, alongside its betting partner Don Best Sports. The statement ended by underlining that neither the athletes nor their teams were suspected of any illegal or unethical activities. Results from their investigation are still pending as well.

The way the fight went also indicated that Minner might have been indeed injured, as he threw a left kick around the thirty-second mark, which was followed immediately by a painful grimace, and then he reached for his leg. This opened up an opportunity for Nuerdanbieke to close the gap and land a knee on Minner’s head. Nuerdanbieke finished the match, pounding elbows into Minner, was on the ground, and the TKO came at exactly a minute and seven seconds in the first round.

Even though UFC’s statement says that it doesn’t believe any of the fighters was involved in any illegal activities for this match, its recent announcement about prohibiting betting by fighters on promotion events means this investigation is going to be thorough. This doesn’t stop people from speculating, however, and with many mentioning that the UFC was slow to implement this change, it’s also an opportunity for the UFC to right a wrong, if the investigation does uncover illegal behavior.