The UFC cancelled a lightweight bout between Michael Johnson and Alexander Hernandez at UFC 324 after the fight was flagged for unusual betting activity, marking the latest integrity-related incident to affect the promotion.
The fight, scheduled to take place on 25 January at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, was pulled from the card just hours before the event began. While no immediate explanation was provided at the time of cancellation, UFC CEO Dana White later confirmed that the decision followed a warning from a gambling integrity monitoring service regarding suspicious betting patterns.
According to White, the alert prompted swift action in light of a previous betting controversy that emerged in November 2025. In that case, a bout between Isaac Dulgarian and Yadier del Valle proceeded despite similar warnings. Dulgarian, who entered the fight as a heavy favourite, lost under circumstances that later drew scrutiny, and he was subsequently released by the UFC.
The organisation later confirmed it was cooperating with an FBI investigation related to the incident.
Speaking after UFC 324, White indicated that the promotion was unwilling to risk a repeat scenario. He reiterated that while betting integrity remains under close observation, the UFC does not believe fight-fixing to be widespread within the organisation.
Saturday’s cancellation represents the third publicly reported federal investigation or enforcement-related issue tied to suspicious betting in the UFC in recent years.
In 2023, former fighter and coach James Krause was barred from cornering fighters following irregular betting activity linked to a bout involving one of his athletes, Darrick Minner, who later admitted to entering the fight with a pre-existing injury.
The latest incident occurs as combat sports betting continues to expand, with recent developments including SWA and Sportradar's launch of an in-play MMA betting model using official UFC data earlier this month, and Polymarket's November 2025 announcement as the UFC's Official Prediction Market Partner.
The UFC announced its partnership with Polymarket as its Official Prediction Market Partner in November 2025, marking the first official collaboration between a sports organization and a prediction market platform
