{"id":261664,"date":"2025-11-04T19:01:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261664\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T19:01:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:01:13","slug":"this-sht-is-so-grimy-ufc-pros-react-to-isaac-dulgarian-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261664\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This sh*t is so grimy\u2019: UFC pros react to Isaac Dulgarian scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The UFC is in the middle of a major gambling controversy and now several fighters have spoken up to seemingly legitimize the issue.<\/p>\n

This past Saturday at UFC Vegas 110, Yadier del Valle defeated Isaac Dulgarian via first-round submission in a bout that would have flown well under the radar were it not for suspicious betting activity ahead of the fight that caused a stir on social media. Dulgarian was listed as a heavy favorite throughout fight week, but the betting lines narrowed dramatically in the hours before the contest. When Dulgarian was swiftly submitted, the online fervor only grew, and the controversy was substantiated by major sports books offering compensation to bettors who backed Dulgarian.<\/p>\n

Less than 48 hours later, Dulgarian was released and the UFC has since released a statement<\/a> announcing they are \u201cconducting a thorough review of the facts surrounding the Dulgarian vs. del Valle bout.\u201d Presumably, the review would involve looking into whether Dulgarian knowingly fought with a significant injury and if that information was leaked to specific bettors or if he intentionally took a dive, among other possibilities.<\/p>\n

Amid the buzz growing around this potential scandal, several UFC fighters have confirmed via social media comments that offers were made to them in the past to throw fights.<\/p>\n

In a pair of since-deleted tweets, Vince Morales wrote, \u201cAll this throwing the fight stuff is crazy!\u201d before noting he had \u201cbeen approached\u201d to lose a fight on purpose and later replying to a Twitter user that the offer was for $70,000.<\/p>\n

However, Morales later retracted his statement and apologized, claiming it was simply a joke made in \u201cpoor taste.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another UFC veteran, Lando Vannata seemingly revealed he had been asked to take a dive seven times, writing that \u201cmy record reflects my integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Morales, Vannata also later retracted his statement claiming he was joking, with the number seven reflecting the number of losses in his UFC career (his record with the promotion is 4-7-2). Vannata wrote on Instagram Stories, \u201cTo be clear, I\u2019ve never been approached about throwing a fight nor anyone I know. Because I\u2019m not a ho and would never disrespect the martial arts for money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former UFC fighter Zac Pauga commented on the situation, clearly joking from the onset unlike Morales and Vannata, wondering why no one ever asked him to fix a fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere I was ruining people\u2019s parlays for free,\u201d Pauga wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n

Vanessa Demopoulos also weighed in via a social media comment, writing, \u201cPeople have approached me to throw fights also. My integrity could never. We\u2019ve spent our lives learning skills and honoring this sport. Can\u2019t believe people would compromise their morals like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former UFC fighter Tom Lawlor was not impressed by his peers\u2019 attempt at humor.<\/p>\n

\u201cMultiple fighters also now walking back what they said publicly as just \u2018jokes\u2019 when there was no attempt at humor, nothing funny was said, and no one laughed,\u201d Lawlor wrote on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The UFC is in the middle of a major gambling controversy and now several fighters have spoken up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702],"class_list":{"0":"post-261664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}