UFC President Dana White is showing no concern about an ongoing betting investigation including James Krause.
Krause has come under fire after Darrick Minner’s UFC Vegas 64 loss to Shayilan Nuerdanbieke. Minner is coached by Krause, who has openly admitted to betting on fights. Suspicion grew after Minner went from being a slight betting underdog in the fight to Nuerdanbieke becoming a sudden +420 favorite. Initially, it appeared Minner suffered a knee injury during the fight, but news of his issue was allegedly leaked by his camp just hours before the bout.
To add to this, Krause ran a paid gambling group and has claimed to have made more money gambling on MMA fights than anything else. All of this has led to suspicion regarding bets placed on fights involving athletes associated with Krause. Commissions such as the New Jersey Gaming Enforcement have banned sportsbooks from taking bets on fights involving Krause. The UFC also announced fighters will not be permitted to compete as long as they’re trained by Krause.
Dana White responded to the controversy surrounding Krause during the UFC 282 post-fight press conference (h/t Essentially Sports).
“I am not worried about it at all. People ask me well, what’s the UFC gonna do? We let these guys know not to bet on fights. Do you know what the outcome of this is? If I penalize them, you get cut. They are gonna go to fu****g federal prison, federal fu****g prison. If you are that f*cking stupid and anyone else wants to do it. Knock yourself out. There is not enough money in it to ruin your life, and not go to jail, go to federal prison.”
ESPN recently received the following statement from U.S. Integrity President Matthew Holt.
“Our goal as always is to notify the industry of any potential nefarious, abnormal or suspicious activity as soon as possible, so they can take action as quickly as possible,” U.S. Integrity President, Matthew Holt, told ESPN. “In this case, we hope that by sending a couple hours before the fight started, we may have helped prevent some more suspicious bets from getting through.”