A Fixed UFC Fight? The Inevitable Outcome of TKO's Strategy
No matter how much money we stuff into Ari Emanuel's mouth, he'll never shit great fights
Saturday night’s UFC Fight Night: Garcia vs. Onama card at the Apex Warehouse in Las Vegas was a shit show. Full stop.
Low Expectations Going In
Expectations for the card were extremely low going in, with Morning Kombat titling their preview video, “Garcia vs Onama: Worst UFC Card Ever?”
Check this discussion:
Brian Campbell: We’ve asked this question before, but this time I wonder if we mean it. LT, be honest with me: is this as bad as it gets in the warehouse? Is this the worst Apex Fight Night card we have had to date or what?
Luke Thomas: (Discoursive ramble that concludes:) I don’t know where you would put this within the suite of UFC products but at the bottom end of the tier.
Campbell: Yeah, I’m with you on that. It was disappointing to see. It felt like this one along with the next fight night main event which has Bonfim in it and has a similar level of — I don’t want to say ‘who are those guys’ but you know just not having those couple huge names to grab you — that hopefully this is sort of the tail end of the ESPN era and then we kick some absolute buttocks heading into the CBS (era).
Del Valle vs. Dulgarian: Rigged? Fixed? Worked? WTF!?!
Then came the actual fight card.
Bettors watching the odds closely pre-fight got plenty of warning that something weird was going on.
Then many of the betting sites stopped taking bets on the entire card early.
Then screenshots like this started showing up all over the timeline.
It didn’t take long before people were connecting the dots and pointing out that Dulgarian trained under disgraced UFC coach turned (alleged) gambling tout James Krause.
Dulgarian also shares management with Krause and Jeff Molina, the fighter suspended in the same incident that brought down Krause.
And then there was the fight.
That doesn’t even include UFC vet Michael Chiesa’s absolute ripping of Dulgarian’s “inexplicable” performance on the ESPN post-fight show.
Michael Chiesa: Switches to hand on bicep. The top hand is right there for the taking. Look at this. He doesn’t even try to peel it. It’s right there for the taking. Del Valle isn’t even stretching the body.
I just don’t know if he was surprised that del Valle stuffed the first take down. Did he think he was just going to buzz through the guy?Del Valle just had him lost and out of sorts. I mean that’s Jiu Jitsu 101. If you’re on the main card of a UFC…it’s one thing if you’re punched into submission. A lot of day one mistakes.
You can even hear on the broadcast, ‘What is this guy doing?’
You peel the top hand. You don’t punch behind you. That is the most useless strike you can possibly throw.
I’m sitting here on the preview show hyping you as a guy who can go in the top 5 and win fights. It doesn’t even look like could fight someone in the bottom of the top 500. It was an F- performance. Absolute trash.
Then it came out that Dulgarian had appeared on the MMA Junkie podcast and said:
Isaac Dulgarian: I say, ‘don’t bet on me unless you’re paying me some percentage.’
I’m doing all the work. That’s how I feel about it.
I work my ass off every day. I’m trying to support a family with this. I think they should put a like some type of clause like three or 5% of what you make goes to the fighter.
So that’s that’s how I think they should do it because we’re the ones putting our lives on the line. We’re the ones sacrificing everything, training all day long, losing the social life.
So yeah, if you’re betting on me, I want some of it.
Like I said, complete shit show.
But wait, there’s more.
Sports Books Refund Dulgarian Bettors
William Hill US announced “customers with losing bets on the Dulgarian UFC fight will receive a cash credit within 24 hours (singles), or within 24 hours of the last leg being determined (Parlay/SGP/Super Parlay) should that bet have won without that leg included.”
Draft Kings tweeted: “We are aware of the situation regarding the Isaac Dulgarian vs Yadier Del Valle event and we will be sure to let you know if our team has further updates.”