Editors Note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the MMAPressRoom.com or its affiliates.

“I was ready to step in there and put it all on the line. Why? So I could speak my truths and be heard, not silenced, like they’re trying to silence me and Joshua with the narrative, with the push, with the power of four,” explains UFC Hall of Famer Diego Sanchez in a May 4, 2021 Hooks In with Anthony Smith YouTube video titled, “Diego Sanchez talks UFC release on SiriusXM’s MMA Today – Full Interview.” Alleging collusion between the UFC and multiple big tech platforms; readers here at the MMA Press Room will no doubt be experiencing a sense of déjà vu where, in our last installment, we explored the idea that DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the UFC, is the missing link in a triangle of impropriety which has seen virtually the entire press corps align against James Krause and Glory MMA despite an abundance of information to suggest the story is much bigger than what has initially been reported.

“You guys think that this shit is just a clean cut, all moral, integrity and honor and loyalty and respect – as real as it gets company. But that’s not the truth man,” explained a defiant Sanchez to Smith and his SiriusXM co-host RJ Clifford. “I’m outside this company now and to be honest with you, I’m going to tell you guys both, frankly, right now – I’m fearful man, I’m fearful for my motherf**king life.

“(I’m) fearful that this company, this billion-dollar monopoly company, worldwide, is going to come after me,” admitted Sanchez. “Something might happen to me in two-years, maybe in a couple years? Maybe something happened – I made my truck fall, maybe I wreck my truck? Maybe something happened, maybe I, ‘Oh, Diego overdosed on some suicide shit.’ I don’t know, but I would not put anything past the level of evil that is within this corporation.”

Flashing back to UFC 277 where we honed in on a number of irregularities surrounding the Hamdy Abdelwahab vs. Don’Tale Mayes fight and the genesis for what is, for all intents and purposes, a cover-up in mixed martial arts starts to come into focus; the events inside the Octagon that night troubling enough to prompt not one, but two feature-length articles on the subject. Among our chief concerns that night were Referee Kerry Hatley's performance inside the cage in relation to the UFC commentary crew cageside as we ultimately began to turn our attention to the betting line, DraftKings Sportsbook and fixed-fights inside the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization well ahead of the UFC officially acknowledging the issue publicly.

This same UFC 277 event infamously saw UFC commentator Joe Rogan openly question the betting practices of Texas MMA Judge Seth Fuller live on-air despite the fact both of his colleagues (Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier) had previously acknowledged the betting line just prior to the fight. Dubbed the shot heard around the world by some in the mixed martial arts media, it wouldn’t take long before influential elements within the sport itself set about treating the entire matter as if it never happened at all as the first semblances of a bonified cover-up in mixed martial arts began to take shape.

“Somebody gave Don’Tale the third round Joe,” remarked Cormier in the aftermath of the fight.

“That’s... that guy needs a talking to,” explained Rogan in response to Texas MMA Judge Seth Fullers official scorecard. “We need to check to see what he bet on.”

The wisdom of questioning the betting practices of a licensed official live on-air notwithstanding; the resulting fallout from unethical betting practices in mixed martial arts would soon go on to change the sport forever.

“Joe Rogan’s words on commentary may have had a bigger impact than he expected,” writes author Drake Riggs in his August 9, 2022 MMAMania.com article titled, “Texas judge claps back at Joe Rogan: ‘Now I have a reputation of being a bad judge'."

How much of an impact is a matter of speculation; but not only did the judge personally respond to Rogan following the fight, but Rogan’s original comments themselves would soon go on to be whitewashed from the public record altogether.

“That guy needs a talking to….we need to check to see what he’s been on,” writes author Steven Marrocco in his August 9, 2022 MMAFighting.com article titled, “Texas judge responds to Joe Rogan, UFC 277 commentary team with explainer on score for Don’Tale Mayes."

Insinuating the judge was on drugs or worse, the curious omission of anything to do with betting from the official transcript would quickly reverberate throughout the industry as other influencers began to shake their bottles of Wite-Out.

“Someone needs to talk to that guy, what’s he taking?” recounted ESPN MMA analyst Chael Sonnen in an August 10, 2022 YouTube video titled, “Texas MMA Judge not happy with Joe Rogan…."

“I’m 98% quoting there,” admitted Sonnen with a straight face. “What’s he taking or what’s he on?”

A former UFC middleweight championship contender and perennial fan favorite; Sonnen’s impressively bad UFC 277 predictions are perhaps only matched in scale by the betting proficiency of veteran UFC commentator Joe Rogan.

“I use to bet on UFC, even when I was commentating I would bet on it early on,” explained Rogan in a since deleted viral TikTok video.  “I was like, ‘this is probably not legal’ ... One of my business partners, he would come to a lot of the fights and I would give him... he would gamble. So when I stopped betting, I would just say ‘bet’…and we were at like 84% success rate.”

Interestingly, however, it wasn’t Rogan’s UFC betting proficiency or his suggestion of impropriety at the hands of Texas MMA Judge Seth Fuller which would go on to prompt the organization into revising their fighter code of conduct on wagering in combat sports; but instead it was another event altogether at UFC Fight Night 214 which would ultimately become the purported catalyst for change within mixed martial arts.

“On Thursday, the UFC announced the addition of stricter language about wagering in its fighter code of conduct as well as the hiring of sports wagering monitoring firm U.S. Integrity,” writes author Marc Raimondi in his January 19, 2023 ESPN.com article titled, “UFC tightens gambling rules, hires integrity firm amid probe.”

According to the report, “The two changes come as multiple governmental bodies are investigating a UFC fight between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke on Nov. 5 that attracted suspicious betting patterns. Multiple sources have told ESPN that the FBI has been collecting information and interviewing people about the fight.”

Reverse engineering the story as we take a step back in time, according to a November 11, 2022 SportsHandle.com article titled, “UFC Betting Controversy: Not a Fair Fight Between Gamblers and Sportsbooks?” author Eric Raskin interviews U.S. Integrity President Matthew Holt who explained exactly how the red flags at UFC Fight Night 214 were initially raised.

“As David Purdum and Marc Raimondi reported for ESPN,” explains Raskin, “Shayilan Nuerdanbieke’ first-round TKO win over Darrick Minner came on the heels of betting that was flagged as suspicious by numerous sportsbooks.”

According to the report, “The betting led numerous sportsbooks to contact the Las Vegas-based monitoring firm U.S. Integrity.”

Intrigued as we continued to search for more information, it turns out there are three main ways U.S. Integrity initially becomes aware of suspicious betting activity online. One way is the system which U.S. Integrity employs in detecting abnormalities itself. The second is through “external integrity organizations" reporting unusual activity to the watchdog group and according to the report, “A third way is how Saturday’s UFC situation went down, with operators sending initial reports of suspicious activity and U.S. Integrity anonymizing that information and sharing it with other operators and regulators.”

With U.S. Integrity at the heart of the now infamous point-shaving controversy where as of yet unnamed sportsbook operators are cited as having initially raised concerns with authorities, the MMAPressRoom.com has explored the idea that the official sports betting partner of the UFC, DraftKings Sportsbook, is in fact the missing link in a triangle of impropriety which initially saw both U.S. Integrity itself and other sportsbook operators fail to detect the purported abnormalities in question.

The power of four as originally described by UFC veteran Diego Sanchez culminating in the tie that binds DraftKings Sportsbook with including paid promotional material for both MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and Chael Sonnen’s YouTube channel;  the same two entities initially responsible for smokescreening Rogan’s original comments on Texas MMA Judge Seth Fuller. The narrative shift from a betting scandal at UFC 277 to a betting scandal at UFC Fight Night 214 subtle, but still apparent as the variables were all but substituted in order to subterfuge those paying attention into focusing in on James Krause and Glory MMA rather than the irregularities at UFC 277 which may very well lead back to the UFC organization itself.

The kind of public relations nightmare that kills $4-billion dollar evaluations and ends careers forever; miraculously the heavens would go on to open up for the promotion as UFC president Dana White’s widely publicized domestic violence dispute in Mexico all but pushed the betting controversy out of the headlines permanently. Among the last vestiges of the scandal vanquishing altogether with the nearly simultaneous arrest of former UFC middleweight champion Phil Baroni for murder in of all places, Mexico; as an already dark chapter in mixed martial arts history would go on to take a disturbing turn headed into 2023.

With the UFC now officially acknowledging fight-fixing as a “huge concern” for the promotion amidst multiple ongoing government investigations, the MMA Press Room remains among the only sources in combat sports today to have regularly covered the corruption inside mixed martial arts as nearly the entire press corps is complicit in the conspiracy of silence. A phenomenon even acknowledged by veteran combat sportswriters, since nearly the inception of mixed martial arts itself an effort has existed to whitewash the more professional wrestling-like aspects of MMA in favor of a more idealistically minded version of the truth. The massive chasm created in the timeline of impropriety a form of corruption in and of itself; only adding further credence to the notion of the power of four as originally described by UFC Hall of Famer Diego Sanchez who was among the very few ready to step in there and put it all on the line to speak his truth.