An ugly scene for UFC bettors this past weekend that you might’ve missed.
UFC fighter Darrick Minner, coached by James Krause at Glory MMA, lost in the first round due to an apparent pre-existing injury in the opening minutes.
Minner was injured within moments of his fight with opponent Shayilan Nuerdanbieke, with a clear knee injury that led Minner unable to get up.
UFC commentator Dominick Cruz immediately speculated that this injury was preexisting, “He probably wanted to test it out [his knee] and see how bad it was.” Cruz continued as he was covering up from strikes without attempting to move, “He’s not even trying to get up here.”
A wild flood of money came in against Minner in the final hours before fight time, forcing some books to raise flags and pull the fight from betting altogether. Even as their lines moved, making Nuerdanbieke a massive -450 favorite, money still came flying in on the favorite.
Plenty of sportsbooks were reached out to for exact betting figures, but due to the now impending investigation into this fight, they are unable to do so. But what’s important is that there could have been some insider trading that was involved here.
The aforementioned Krause, Minner’s coach, does run a betting syndicate operation called the 1% club, where bettors pay him for his UFC betting advice. Whether that is actually insider trading is unknown. Although, the UFC recently banned athletes from betting on their fights, even if betting on themselves.
It is unclear whether the betting syndicate is against UFC rules as he is undoubtedly raking in cash with the exorbitant amount people pay for his sports betting picks.
Krause did confirm that this was a preexisting injury for Minner. “He’s good man. Heartbroken obviously because he’s probably getting cut now,” the coach wrote. “His knee was jacked going into the fight but gotta pay the bills. Is what it is I suppose.”
UFC issued a statement on the matter.
“Like many professional sports organizations, UFC works with an independent betting integrity service to monitor wagering activity on our events,” the UFC’s statement read via ESPN. “Our betting integrity partner, Don Best Sports, a leading global supplier of real-time betting data for North American sporting events, will conduct a thorough review of the facts and report its findings. At this time, we have no reason to believe either of the athletes involved in the bout, or anyone associated with their teams, behaved in an unethical or irresponsible manner.”
There is more to come as this story develops.