Fight fixing is back in the news following this past weekend’s UFC Vegas 110, with UFC bettering integrity partner IC360 (formerly U.S. Integrity) investigating the suspicious bout between Yadier del Valle and Issac Dulgarian.
Dulgarian, who lost after tapping to a rear-naked choke, has been highly criticized for his inability to defend the submission. Ahead of the fight, the moneyline shifted to de Valle, including sizeable amounts being placed on del Valle winning in the first round.
That raised red flags.
Now, UFC bantamweight Vince Morales has revealed that he was previously approached with an offer to throw a fight, without specifying by who or when.
“All this throwing the fight stuff is crazy! I’ve been approached about doing it and it’s not something I could live with…even though I ended up losing the damn fight anyways,” Morales wrote on social media on Monday.
In a follow-up post, Morales responded when asked about how much was at stake. “Penny’s considering how big of a deal it is. 70k,” he replied.
Cageside Press reached out to Morales regarding the incident, who clarified that the fight in question occurred during COVID. “That was way back in the covid times. Fight week during the first week of apex. Happened in passing so I didn’t even take it serious,” he stated.
Morales is 0-3 in his second stint with the company, most recently losing to Raul Rosas Jr. earlier this year. In his first run with the UFC, he posted a 3-5 record from 2018 to 2022. The timeline would likely make it his May 2020 fight with Chris Gutierrez at the Apex, which was UFC Vegas 1.
Morales obviously made the ethical decision, but that hasn’t always been the case. South Korea’s Tae Hyun Bang was handed a 10-month prison sentence in 2017 for his involvement in a fight fixing scandal at UFC Fight Night 79. Bang accepted just north of $90,000 USD to throw his fight with Leo Kuntz at the event in 2015.
Bang apparently got cold feet about the deal, and wound up going on to win a split decision. At the time, the UFC had caught wind of suspicious betting activity, and had preemptively warned the fighters about a potential investigation, according to Kuntz.
Then there was the more recent James Krause situation, which saw the former GLORY MMA and Fitness coach selling betting tips – allegedly including inside info on his own fighters. Krause, also working for an offshore sportsbook under the radar, was exposed when one of his fighters, Darrick Minner, went down early with an undisclosed injury in his November 2022 fight with Shayilan Nuerdanbieke. The bout was flagged as suspicious due once again to monitoring firms picking up irregularities, and led to an investigation by U.S. Integrity as well as the FBI.
Krause, Minner, and UFC flyweight Jeff Molina, who had helped run a betting Discord set up by James Krause, were all banished from the UFC.
8:15PM ET – Story updated with additional info from Morales
