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If Dana White sounded unbothered by allegations of fight fixing surrounding the James Krause gambling scandal, that tune seems to have taken a dramatic change recently.

Fans won’t have to go back all that far to find a time when UFC President Dana White didn’t seem to have a care in the world about allegations of fight fixing in the UFC.

“I am not worried about it at all,” White said of the controversy surrounding Glory MMA coach and professional gambling tout James Krause, and the investigation into a bout between Krause-trained athlete Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke at a November UFC Fight Night.

That was just back on December 11th at the UFC 282 post-fight presser. While the UFC boss reinforced that opinion with a reminder that the costs to athletes for engaging in that kind of illegal activity were far higher than the money they could get for throwing bouts, it seems he felt the UFC could stay clear of the fallout. “If you are that f-cking stupid—and anyone else wants to do it—knock yourself out,” White added.

It’s unclear if something has changed between then and now. Certainly the cessation of UFC-related gambling in both Alberta and Ontario provinces in Canada, along with the continued investigation surrounding Krause and his athletes, could be adding more pressure. Whatever the cause, White sounded notably more cautious on the issue in a recent interview with ESPN.

“Huge concern,” White said of the topic of ‘fight fixing’ in a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “Now it is. Now that there’s an investigation and it could be possible that it happened. Now it’s something that we really have to—

“You know, we’ve always told fighters—as all the gambling stuff started to heat up—‘Stay away from gambling. Obviously, don’t—’ I mean, do you know how stupid you have to be to get involved in something like that? Everybody—it gets caught. You always get caught. And all they have to do is follow the money. Follow the money, you know? But there’s a lot of people in prison for really dumb stuff. People really are that stupid and, you know, things are gonna happen.

“And if this is all true, and this investigation ends up that this really happened people are going to go to prison. People aren’t going to go to jail, people are going to go to prison. And hopefully everybody else is watching and taking notes.”

In a recent interview with TSN’s Aaaron Bronsteter White reaffirmed that the UFC was barring all Krause-trained fighters from competing in the promotion until the investigation into his gambling activities has concluded.

The UFC already cut ties with Darrick Minner following his loss to Neurdanbieke. Glory MMA fighter and UFC flyweight champion Brandon Moreno voiced his support for Krause in a post to his Instagram account earlier in December, but recent videos show him now training at the UFC Performance Institute in Las Vegas for his January 21st bout against Deiveson Figueiredo.

Zabit Magomedsharipov has left the mixed martial arts (MMA) community wondering what could have been.

The talented Russian Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight contender called it a career this past June 2022. It’s been just over three years since Magomedsharipov (18-1) last competed, defeating Calvin Kattar via a unanimous decision.

Like his fellow countryman, Khabib Nurmagomedov (29-0), Magomedsharipov went out on top with a lengthy win streak. The biggest difference between the pair’s departures, however, is that one hasn’t promised they won’t return.

“We are good friends and always talk, but we didn’t discuss his retirement,” Nurmagomedov told Red Corner MMA. “I think he left because of personal reasons. It’ll be interesting to talk to him about it.

“Unlike me, he didn’t promise his mother,” he laughed. “If you pique his interest, anything is possible. 50/50 [that he returns].”

Magomedsharipov, 31, is now embarking on the journey to become a doctor. While he made no promises in any direction, he noted after his retirement that one of the reasons he didn’t stick around was because UFC backpedaled on a title shot guarantee that never came to be. Additionally, Magomedsharipov has said that his own injuries along with several opponent refusals to fight him played a part in his exit from the sport where he made his name.

In Sept. 2017, Magomedsharipov joined UFC on the heels of a run as Absolute Championship Berkut (ACB) champion in his home of Russia. The dazzling striker earned six wins in the Octagon, but stood out most with his Suloev stretch submission highlight against Brandon Davis and Fight of the Night victory over Kyle Bochniak.

With current champion, Alexander Volkanovski, making a trip back to Lightweight for his upcoming appearance in Feb. 2023, no time would be better than now for Magomedsharipov to scratch the MMA itch.

It turns out one of the judges for UFC 282’s scrap between Paddy Pimblett & Jared Gordon was the son of the noted longtime MMA official and instructor.

Few decisions in MMA have sparked as much recent controversy as Paddy Pimblett’s win over Jared Gordon at UFC 282 last Saturday, December 10th. But while longtime weird-card judging notable Doug Crosby has taken the brunt of fan & pundit wrath for his decision to award victory Liverpool’s rising star, there were two other men who shared the responsibility of making that decision.

One of those men was Ron McCarthy, son of famed MMA referee, judge, and officiating instructor ‘Big’ John McCarthy. Like Crosby and fellow longtime adjudicator Chris Lee, Ron McCarthy turned in a 29-28 scorecard for Paddy Pimblett. On a recent episode of the ‘Weighing In’ podcast, Big John made no exceptions for family ties when putting his son’s card on blast.

“No f-cking way Paddy Pimblett won that fight,” John McCarthy said of the UFC 282 co-main result (transcript via MMA Mania). “My son was one of the judges and he asked me and I said, ‘You got that wrong. I thought Jared Gordon won 29-28.’”

The current Bellator broadcast team member went on to break down how he felt the fight should have been scored, according to current judging criteria—giving the first and third rounds to Gordon. McCarthy also noted that his son and the other judges may have been influenced by the out-sized crowd pop every time Pimblett had a moment of success.

“First round, Jared Gordon hit Paddy Pimblett with a left hook like it was a magnet. He hit him over and over and over again and he stunned him. You could see it,” he continued. “Now, Paddy had his things, but this can happen when you’re a judge sitting there. You’re getting the crowd responding every time Paddy does something. Because truthfully, Paddy did not punch as many times as Jared Gordon. He didn’t land as much as Jared Gordon and the shots that he landed were not as good.

“But when you get the crowd reaction and that’s what you’re hearing, there’s times when you’re not seeing that angle but you’re hearing the reaction of the crowd and it’s an influencer. And I think they got influenced by what the crowd was into.”

“Jared Gordon won that first round, he won the third round, I give Paddy Pimblett the second round,” McCarthy said. “But if you go back and you watch that fight, that first round, a lot of people said it was really close, not really that close. I’m not like one guy ran over the other, but it’s pretty clear Jared Gordon should have won that round.”

For his part, ‘The Baddy’ has vociferously defended the judges decision in his fight, and seems to feel there should be little controversy regarding the scores turned in.

“Everyone’s got an opinion, lad,” Pimblett told the assembled media during his post fight presser. “Opinions are assholes, you know what I mean? Everyone’s got one. I know I won that fight. Simple as. I deal in facts, lad. And I won a unanimous decision. It’s not even like it was a split decision. Look at his face and look at mine!? Fights get scored on damage now. I landed a lot more damage. End of.”

In the meantime, the Mohegan Tribe Athletic Department has opened an investigation into Crosby’s role in another recent fight, where he turned in a dissenting 50-45 scorecard for Danny Sabatello in Sabatello’s recent split decision loss to Rafeon Stots at Bellator 289. No word yet if the Nevada Athletic Commission plans to review any of the scoring for UFC 282.