Veteran coach and retired fighter James Krause is currently under suspension by the Nevada Athletic Commission due to an ongoing investigation into betting irregularities, which ultimately led to the UFC essentially cutting all ties with him.
On Friday, the UFC notified athletes and managers that anyone who continues to associate with Krause as either a coach or just working out of his Glory MMA and Fitness gym would no longer be allowed to compete in the promotion. The UFC stated there are “government investigations” looking into the situation, which stemmed from a fight where Darrick Minner, who counts Krause as his head coach, lost at UFC Vegas 64 after betting lines shifted dramatically against him in the hours leading up to the bout.
The UFC then released Minner from his contract.
While few details exist regarding allegations against Krause, the UFC has already faced dramatic fallout from the investigation including two prominent provinces in Canada banning all betting on UFC events moving forward.
Matt Brown, who actually worked with Krause during his appearance on The Ultimate Fighter season 25, always maintained a good relationship with him over the years but even he can’t help but believe this situation all but dooms his future prospects where combat sports is involved.
“I always thought he was a good dude,” Brown said about Krause on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Very, very smart with coaching, very smart with business stuff. I actually picked up some tips from him for business stuff. He’s a very intelligent guy.
“Sounds like he went to the well one too many times on this one though, right? He reached a little too far, over stepped his boundaries and now he’s looking like Pete Rose out here. Long story short, James Krause is f*****. Everything he’s worked for is going down the drain from this. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
As a 14-year UFC veteran, Brown actually remembers a time when the UFC warned fighters about the dangers involved with betting on the sport.
In fact, he says the instructional he attended with an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation essentially scared him straight from ever participating in anything related to gambling and the UFC.
“We did a UFC summit back in I would say 2010, 2011, they used to have these summits every year and they’d bring all the fighters out and put us in a room and give us speeches from all these people,” Brown said. “They had a FBI guy come in once and he was talking about sports betting and how we shouldn’t be doing it and how we’d get in trouble if it happens.
“Then funny enough, that just kind of fell off and then all of a sudden everyone’s promoting betting, all these betting sites are out there, everyone’s talking about it. I hear about all these coaches betting on everything. I always kept that in the back of my mind like somebody’s going to get f***** here. Too bad it was James Krause, I really like that guy.”
As an active UFC athlete and coach himself, Brown knows firsthand that a lot of people involved with the sport wager on fights, especially those with information that could help them place more accurate bets.
“I can tell you factually there are coaches constantly betting on fights,” Brown said. “Guys that have inside info.
“This happens in all the different sports. Why are they just singling out UFC? Obviously, we know what just happened.”
As of now, Krause hasn’t been presented with any formal charges stemming from the investigation and it’s unknown if he’ll ever deal with any permanent sanctions.
That said, Krause’s reputation has undeniably taken a massive hit, especially with the UFC preventing anybody associated with him from competing in the promotion while the investigation is still happening.
“He’s just accused right now,” Brown said. “We don’t know all the facts. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Innocent until proven guilty, right? But it certainly does not look very good for him. It does not look good for James Krause. I’ll just give my own shout out to him and wish him luck cause I really like the guy.
“He just went to the well one too many times. That’s kind of what I’m looking at. He probably did not break the law in most of these instances, and probably wasn’t doing anything to implicate himself, but then he went to the well one too many times and went pretty deep from what it sounds like. That line moved a lot. He went deep into the well and now he’s got to pay the price for it unfortunately.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/12/6/23495641/matt-brown-reacts-to-betting-scandal-in-ufc-long-story-short-james-krause-is-f?rand=96749
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