Back in April, reports surfaced that solid evidence existed of an attempt to fix a fight in the UFC. No, it wasn’t from Wanderlei Silva, and the fight wasn’t Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez (no matter what Khabib Nurmagomedov says). Instead, the allegations stemmed from an undercard bout for UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs. Masvidal in Seoul, South Korea.
Apparently, Korean fighter Tae Hyun Bang received a bribe of 100 million Won ($87,950) to throw his fight against Leo Kuntz on November 28th, 2015. It seems the fight-fixers Tae Hyun also placed a bet of 50 million Won ($43,975) on Kuntz to win the bout. As well as a reported $1.7 million in bets from organized crime figures involved in on the fix.* The result was a massive last minute odds swing in Kuntz’s favor, one which tipped off UFC officials, who spoke to both fighters before the event.
“The UFC seemed like they knew something was definitely not right,” Kuntz said in a statement to MMAJunkie. “They told me it was the largest odd swing they’d seen in MMA and last minute. They told me, ‘Hey, if either one of you guys goes out there and doesn’t fight, you should prepare to be investigated.’”
Reportedly, following the UFC’s warning, Tae Hyun ditched his plan to take a dive. He even ended up winning the bout by split decision. However, it looks like that move wasn’t enough to absolved him from the legal consequences.
Following months of investigation, the Yonhap News Agency reports that prosecutors have indicted Tae Hyun for his role in the incident along with several other “fight-fixing brokers,” including Pride FC and Dream veteran Dae-Won Kim. Tae Hyun Bang will reportedly await trail without detention.
Additionally, Yonhap News reports that the UFC has terminated their contract with Tae Hyun Bang. Although it’s unclear whether his release from the organization was as a direct result of this fight fixing scandal. He competed in a bout against Nick Hein almost a year after his fight with Kuntz, at UFC Fight Night: Arlovski vs. Barnett, losing by unanimous decision.
*This article originally stated that fight-fixers placed the $43,970 bet on Kuntz and has since been corrected.
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