Tae Hyun Bang indicted for fight-fixing in UFC

Underground
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UFC lightweight Tae Hyun Bang reportedly has been indicted for allegedly taking a bribe in connection with his bout against Leo Kuntz at UFC Fight Night 79.

According tokoreaherald.com, Bang is no longer a UFC fighter and will go to trial without being detained. Also indicted are several “brokers” who allegedly set up the fix, including MMA fighter Dae Won Kim.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, a branch of South Korea’s Ministry of Justice that is similar to the FBI, announced the indictment.

As of Monday morning, Bang (18-10 MMA, 2-3 UFC) remains listed on the UFC’s website. UFC officials and his manager did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When an

Bang, 34, then allegedly admitted he’d tried to fix his bout with Kuntz, only to later change his mind after being warned by UFC officials. He allegedly accepted a bribe of approximately $87,000 while wagering approximately $43,000 on Kuntz.

After beating Kuntz via split decision at the event, which took place Nov. 28, 2015, at Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul, Bang received death threats from organized crime figures, who bet approximately $1.7 million on Kuntz.

Just hours before the fight, the massive wager turned Bang into a massive underdog, prompting UFC officials to go backstage and issue a stern warning to both fighters.

“The UFC seemed like they knew something was definitely not right,” Kuntz told MMAjunkie in April after the investigation was announced. “They told me it was the largest odd swing they’d seen in MMA and last minute. They told me, ‘Hey, if either one of you guys goes out there and doesn’t fight, you should prepare to be investigated.'”

According to a person close to the fighter at the time of the UFC’s warning, Bang and his camp denied knowledge of any of fight-fixing.

It’s been 11 months since Bang competed in the octagon. He most recently lost a unanimous decision to Nick Hein at UFC Fight Night 93, bringing his promotion record to 2-3.

 

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crazy but understandable, I know of plenty of fights that were fixed overseas. Had managers call friends who are fighters and offer them crazy paydays (for those fighters) to go over to Japan and lose. 

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Alleged Fight Fixing Actually 

 

Couldn't you have just added this to the other two threads

 

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Wouldn't be surprised. Organized crime has always had a hand in every fixing scandal in Korea. Also seems more likely due to fighter income and how easy it is to moonlight with those type of organizations for easy cash.

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Let him Bang bro

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This has happened more than we know.

Remember when Yves Edwards lost to Hominick, someone had put a huge bet on Hominick days before.

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JoseyWales -

Alleged Fight Fixing Actually 

 

Couldn't you have just added this to the other two threads

 

Who fucking cares thread police. Don't click it!

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you can never trust these people

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ONE reason I'd never do that:

"Dont leave it in the hands of the judges , they will make you cry every time"
-Burt Watson

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EckY -

This has happened more than we know.

Remember when Yves Edwards lost to Hominick, someone had put a huge bet on Hominick days before.

Wasn't the rumor back in the day that like a $20k last minute bet came in on Hominick? It made the fight look fixed because Yves got hit with the body shot and laid in Hominicks guard while Hominick sunk in the triangle. 

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hubris - you can never trust these people
What u mean these people

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"Leo Kuntz"

I'm sure this has been said many times...I can see why this guy became a fighter, schoolyard must have been brutal.

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Phil999 - "Leo Kuntz"

I'm sure this has been said many times...I can see why this guy became a fighter, schoolyard must have been brutal.

Wish his first name was Harry.

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notsobigmike -
Trane - This guy can't even take a dive properly. I didn't watch the fight but I'm wondering if the commission may have purposely given him the decision in retaliation. You can't out-corrupt the NASC lol.

I thought the deal was he had second thoughts and just decided not to throw the fight?

I heard he found out that he was getting investigated and there was a probe going on.  I think part of him thought that if he won the stink would be off him and the investigation would move on since the big bets lost and the gangsters would just be glad they didn't get caught.  Like those drug boats that just dump all the drugs into the ocean.  Better to lose that inventory than get busted.  Problem is 2 million gangster dollars is a lot of gangster dollars.

These thugs can't be that smart since this whole plan seemed pretty dumb.  This almost seems like a plan cooked up by idiots on the internet or a poorly written movie.  A bet that big in one chunk on a nothing fight.  Even split up between books and casinos, it's going to raise red flags.  Vegas casinos require approval from management for large sports bets too don't they?

 

I'd like to see an MMA journalist run through some of the biggest line shifts in mma history just out of curiosity.  I know at least a couple of them happened because of injury rumors leaking out.  I wonder how many were based purely on suspicious action?

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Holy shit, the old Bang-Kuntz fight... I remember that shit. Don't remember anything about the actual fight itself though.

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notsobigmike -
IMasturNateConstantly -
hubris - you can never trust these people
What u mean these people

What do YOU mean "these people?"

Hubris means Korean people. He is an apologist for Japanese facsists, the comfort woman system, and the Nanjing Massacre.

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Kim Dae Won famously defeated Marcelo Garcia in MMA. He was Bang Tae Hyun's teammate back when his name was Bang Seung Hwan. They both trained out of Jeong Jin Kwan, a muay thai-based MMA gym in Northern Seoul.

Not surprised to hear about the fight fixing. In general, fighting is a part of the entertainment industry -lots of shady people involved.

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cyberc92 - 
EckY -

This has happened more than we know.

Remember when Yves Edwards lost to Hominick, someone had put a huge bet on Hominick days before.

Wasn't the rumor back in the day that like a $20k last minute bet came in on Hominick? It made the fight look fixed because Yves got hit with the body shot and laid in Hominicks guard while Hominick sunk in the triangle. 



Multiple big bets placed around the same time. Looked like Yves put himself in that triangle. 7-1 underdog beat the uncrowned LW king. 



Lot of bookies put a $500 cap on MMA bets because of shit like this. 

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Really interesting article. Thanks for the post OP, this is the reason it's still worth coming here.

You have to think if this one has been verified as an attempted fix, how many other UFC-level fights have also been fixed, and no ones the wiser?

Really, all individual competitor sports (1vs1) are quite easy to fix. You don't have to get a whole team of athletes involved. Just one single athlete.

Pretty crazy to think the UFC went to both fighters before hand, and told they knew something was up. Poor Kuntz must have felt a lot of pressure after that talk, right before the fight. He had nothing to do with it, and was told he needed to put on a good showing OR ELSE.

I need to go back and watch Edwards vs. Hominick. I don't remember it at all, and had no idea about the strange odds swing.

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Oh hey as I'm search for the Edwards vs Hominick fight, I see this vid/article: http://mmajunkie.com/2017/08/ufc-yves-edwards-mark-hominick-loss-haunts-him-decade-later

Highlights:
“There’s a moment in fights where you first feel your wind,” Edwards said. “At that moment, if you relax, and get through that, you’re good. But if you panic, that can kind of get straight to you. And I was like, ‘Oh (expletive). I’m getting tired.’ I remember thinking that. I was thinking, ‘OK, OK, I’ve got to change the game.’ I took him down, and I was in his butterfly guard. I use this pass all the time. I show it to everybody all the time.

“I’m trying to hit this pass, and it didn’t happen, so I was like, ‘Holy (expletive). I’m supposed to be so much better than this guy, and this is my pass. Why didn’t it work? What’s going on here? Oh, his leg is on my shoulder. Oh, don’t worry about that, because he’s still in his butterfly guard.’

“So I’m not even concerned with it. But why didn’t this pass work? This kid, I was supposed to be so much better than this kid on the ground, and then – oh (expletive), this triangle is real.'”

“At that point, I didn’t even know he got his leg out and got into position, because I was in another place,” Edwards said.
“I wasn’t there in the fight. I was thinking about other (expletive), and I’m supposed to be better than this guy. I’m supposed to tap him.

“And then somebody questions me over that and say that I threw the fight, or even to say that I suck, because I panicked,” Edwards said. “I had a moment of weakness at a time when you’re not supposed to. I don’t know. I still have some stuff to work out to get through that. But it is what it is.