Following precedent setting ruling against Ilir Latifi – NSAC will look into Darrick Minner possibly hiding injury.
The betting line movement — and the injury that caused the fluctuation — in the Darrick Minner vs. Shayilan Nuerdanbieke fight at UFC Vegas 64 has piqued the interest of the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC).
Nuerdanbieke moved from a -220 favorite to -420 in the hours before the event, which took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, took place. U.S. Integrity, a company that investigates suspicious betting behavior, also noted increased bets being made for Nuerdanbieke to win via first-round knockout and for the bout to last fewer than 2.5 rounds.
All those bets cashed when Nuerdanbieke, who had zero previous finishes with the UFC, capitalized on an injury to Minner’s leg and scored a knockout win 1:07 into the contest.
During Wednesday’s NSAC meeting, Nevada Deputy Attorney General Joel Bekker, noted that an “injury occurred during training” and that the result of that pre-fight injury, “had all kind of effects on betting lines.”
Bekker added, “I believe we’re going to also take action against him for not disclosing the injury.”
On that front, the NSAC made a precedent-setting ruling during Wednesday’s meeting, suspending Ilir Latifi for three months for not disclosing a staph infection on his pre-fight medical questionnaire. When handing down Latifi’s punishment, the commission noted that future repercussions could be more severe.
Former UFC fighter James Krause, who hosts a gambling podcast and runs a Discord channel focused on MMA betting, coaches Minner.
After the betting irregularities came to light, the UFC released a statement that read:
“Like many professional sports organizations, UFC works with an independent betting integrity service to monitor wagering activity on our events,” the UFC statement read. “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.”
In mid-October, the UFC updated its code of conduct to prevent fighters from betting on UFC fights. The memo also noted:
“Athletes should also be aware that in most states these same prohibitions apply to some or all of (i) relatives living in the same household as an athlete. (ii) an athlete’s coaches, managers, handlers, athletic trainers, medical professionals and staff and (iii) any other person with access to non-public information regarding participants in any MMA match.”
The NSAC plans to address the above at the next NSAC meeting.