Daniel Cormier remembers calling out a fighter for looking terrible, and he later found out it was a fixed fight.
Providing color commentary during the broadcast, Cormier noted that he was unloading on a fighter for failing to even attempt the most basic moves to stay out of trouble on the ground. Later that night, Cormier got word that the fighter involved was under investigation from the FBI for possible fight fixing claims.
"One time they had a fight in the UFC APEX and this one dude was grappling," Cormier explained on the In the Bayou podcast. "He was so horrible at grappling. I'm on the commentary, and I'm just going, 'How in the world is this kid so bad?' I'm literally just breaking him down because I'm like, 'This technique is just not up to par. It's just not up to snuff. He's so bad. These are basic things that you'd be able to do and defend.'
"Come to find out this dude was trying to throw the fight but not doing a good job of it. The whole time I'm just on him."
The FBI Gets Involved
Cormier says it was not long after the fight ended that the UFC reached out to him to tell him what exactly happened.
"Then they call me and they were like, 'DC, the fact that you were calling him out and you had no idea what was going on,'" Cormier recounted. "But when the kid lost the way that he did, they took him in the back because the FBI is already there.
"The FBI starts watching these betting lines, and if something looks off, they pull the fight. They've done that a number of times now."
UFC's Anti-Fixing Efforts
Cormier never noted which fight he was referencing, although it seems likely he was speaking about the matchup involving Isaac Dulgarian after he went from a favorite to the underdog on the betting lines before ultimately suffering a first-round submission loss. Dulgarian was released from the UFC roster and eventually suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Cormier says the fight against fixing is never done.
"They've had guys weigh in and then the betting swings in one direction," Cormier said. "So that makes people think maybe somebody's injured, somebody has told somebody something, there's something going on to make this line swing so much so the UFC pulls the fight. They don't play with that shit."
