UFC President Dana White addressed the concerns of fight fixing in MMA, amidst the ongoing investigation into suspicious betting activities surrounding the UFC Vegas 64 bout between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke back in November.
White recently spoke with ESPN's Brett Okamoto and explained why fight fixing could now become a major problem within the sport, but hopes that the penalties for those responsible for the Minner-Nuerdanbieke situation serve as a cautionary tale for anyone who wants to try similar antics in the future.
“Huge concern,” White said (h/t Bloody Elbow). “Now it is. Now that there’s an investigation and it could be possible that it happened. Now it’s something that we really have to—You know, we’ve always told fighters, as all the gambling stuff started to heat up—‘Stay away from gambling. Obviously, don’t—’ I mean, do you know how stupid you have to be to get involved in something like that? Everybody—it gets caught. You always get caught. And all they have to do is follow the money. Follow the money, you know? But there’s a lot of people in prison for really dumb stuff. People really are that stupid and, you know, things are gonna happen. And if this is all true, and this investigation ends up that this really happened, people are going to go to prison. People aren’t going to go to jail, people are going to go to prison. And hopefully, everybody else is watching and taking notes.”
Dana White on fight fixing in MMA: Huge concern. Now it is.pic.twitter.com/MWINlS2A9X
— Jed I. Goodman (@jedigoodman) December 13, 2022
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