Isaac Dulgarian has been released from the UFC following his first-round submission loss to Yadier del Valle at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event in Las Vegas, sources told Uncrowned’s Ariel Helwani.
Dulgarian came into the featherweight bout as the betting favorite, but tapped out to a rear-naked choke in a fight that many onlookers deemed suspicious. The fight took place under a cloud of rumors regarding possible strange betting activity, with Dulgarian suddenly dropping from a -250 favorite to -154 just prior to fight time, according to data collected from BestFightOdds.com.
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The bout was apparently questionable enough that several online sportsbooks, including Caesars Sportsbook, said they would refund bets that users placed on Dulgarian to win.
Dulgarian, who was 7-1 headed into Saturday’s fight at the UFC Apex, mounted little resistance against del Valle after an initial takedown attempt. His efforts to defend against the rear-naked choke were thoroughly lambasted by UFC commentator and fighter Michael Chiesa after the bout, who excoriated Dulgarian on the ESPN+ broadcast.
“I’ve got to be honest here, that was an F- performance,” Chiesa said after the fight. “It was absolute trash.”
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This is not the first time rumors of suspicious betting line movement have accompanied a UFC undercard bout. Featherweight Darrick Minner was cut by the UFC in 2022 following a TKO loss to Shayilan Nuerdanbieke that was also accompanied by sudden late movement in the betting odds. That incident later came under investigation, with both Minner and his coach James Krause earning suspensions from the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Prior to that, South Korean fighter Tae Hyun Bang was handed a 10-month prison sentence after accepting a bribe to lose a UFC prelim bout to Leo Kuntz at an event in Seoul. In that instance, Bang was reportedly warned by UFC officials after the suspicious betting line movement was spotted. He ended up winning the fight via split-decision, but was sentenced along with three others involved in the scheme.
