Trust can be hard to come by just in life in general. Unfortunately, that is often times the case in business as well, including sports. Former Invicta FC bantamweight champion and current UFC flyweight contender Lauren Murphy found this out the hard way.

Murphy entered the UFC in 2014 as an undefeated 8-0 champion fresh off her title-winning victory over Miriam Nakamoto who she defeated via fourth-round TKO.

Her first two UFC bouts she would suffer defeat at the hands of former UFC title challengers in Sara McMann and Liz Carmouche. Both of which were very controversial decision losses for Murphy.

It was around this time that Murphy found herself dealing with a rather shady manager. She recently reflected on that time as we head into 2019.

“So when I first signed [with] the UFC, I had a manager who I eventually caught stealing money from me,” Murphy shared on Twitter. “Companies would sponsor me, and he would underreport the amount they sponsored me for. If they sent me $1000, he would say they only sent $500, and then keep his 20% of the $500.

“A few times he even told me ‘they never sent you any money,’ and he just kept the whole amount. This was especially f*cked up because I was a new signee to the UFC and he had a day job of [an] air traffic controller. He made plenty of money without stealing it from a broke fighter.

“Anyway, I eventually caught him, fired him, and signed with [Daniel Rubenstein], who has never done anything like that to me or any of his clients. But the reason I even bring it up is because the dude now runs a company called…wait for it… ‘ETHICAL MMA’

“Someone just told me recently, and I laughed until tears came out. You can’t make this sh*t up. Anyway. After I fired him, I won [fight of the night] in my next performance. He was there. If he hadn’t stolen what he did to begin with, he could have made 20% of that.

“There’s a lot of shady people in MMA that want to take advantage of hard-working (but sometimes ignorant, or naive) fighters. Watch yourself, and who you surround yourself with. Many, many, many people won’t have your best interest at heart. Even if you pay them to.

“Keep in mind too, guys, this was when I first signed with UFC, soooo… five (!) years ago! It was before the Reebok deal. Everyone hated on the Reebok deal but it saves a lot of fighters from sh*t like this.”

Lauren Murphy last fought in June when she dropped a unanimous decision to her fellow castmate from The Ultimate Fighter season 26, Sijara Eubanks.

She was supposed to be returning at UFC Phoenix against Ashlee Evans-Smith but was forced to pull out due to some lingering injuries.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/1/2019