It’s not that unusual to see a UFC fight falling apart on the day of the event, but usually there’s a reason given when it happens. With UFC 324’s prelim fight between Michael Johnson and Alexander Hernandez, that wasn’t the case. News came out on Saturday afternoon that the promotion had cancelled Johnson vs. Hernandez, with no explanation provided.
Now UFC CEO Dana White has confirmed that the bout was pulled due to irregular betting activity on the match.
“Yeah, that’s what it is, [a wagering flag],”
White said at the UFC 324 post-fight press conference. “It happened again. We got called by the gaming integrity service and I said, ‘I’m not doing this shit again.’ So we pulled the fight.”
UFC bettors noted the line on Johnson vs. Hernandez shifting rapidly on Saturday morning, with Johnson going from +132 to -102 , a 234 point swing. Then sportsbooks started reacting. Some placed heavy limits on how much action was allowed on that fight, while others pulled the fight entirely.
In the past, the UFC has let fights go on despite suspicious betting activity. In 2022, Darrick Minner lost to Shayilan Nuerdanbieke via TKO in the first minute of their fight, with a lot of money coming in late on Nuerdanbieke. It was later revealed that Minner fought with a wrecked knee. The situation turned into a full blown scandal when people took a closer look at Minner’s coach James Krause, who was running a large scale betting mill on the side that promised winning picks and insider information.
Then in 2025, Isaac Dulgarian lost a listless fight to Yadier del Valle in the first round after a similar money line move towards del Valle. Dulgarian was immediately released by the UFC and the FBI is reportedly investigating the bout (although that’s what they said about the Minner situation too).
In both cases, the UFC had been warned by their betting integrity partner about the suspicious line move. This time they decided to pull the plug on the fight rather than let it go through, and it will be interesting to see whether that allays bettors’ fears that the sport could be rife with corruption and fight fixing.
