Conor McGregor’s $411M Venture Makes a Blunder as Announcement Gets Retracted Amid Dana White Rivalry

What happens when you hire someone who’s banned from competing? What does that do to your company’s reputation in terms of the message it’s sending out? This is a question ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor will have to answer, with regard to the $411 million promotion he co-owns. While he’s been breaking grounds as a fight-promoter, even positioning himself as an indirect rival to Dana White and the UFC, the announcement of a certain former UFC fighter being signed (or not?) to Bare Knuckle Fighting Champion has definitely raised some eyebrows

Remember Jeff Molina—the featherweight who was slapped with a three-year ban by the Athletic Commission for betting on his friend Darrick Minner’s fight and failing to disclose Minner’s injury? Well, in a shocking twist that rocked the MMA world, BKFC recently announced his addition to their roster, only to backtrack shortly after.

Last Tuesday, the BKFC social media handle announced that they were signing banned UFC fighter Jeff Molina to their roster. The post gained massive attention, as people were shocked that BKFC could sign a fighter who is currently banned. However, the BKFC backtracked on their announcement, stating that they had not signed Molina, “Yesterday’s announcement regarding Jeff Molina’s signing was premature,” the bareknuckle promotion wrote on X (via a report by the BBC).

The post further added, “We respect the ABC’s [Athletic Boxing Commission’s] current suspension and will honour their rules and suspensions.” With a career record of 11 victories and only 2 defeats, Molina was undefeated in his UFC run. ‘El Jefe’ fought three battles under the UFC banner, and he reigned supreme in them, however, the death blow to his career was his betting habits.

Molina was banned by the ABC and the Nevada State Athletic Commission after he pleaded guilty to betting on his fellow fighters and training partner, Derrick Minner, before his defeat against Shayilan Nuerdanbieke back in November 2022. Reports suggest that Minner failed to reveal a crucial injury before the bout, which only added to why he was removed from the promotion as well.

Molina’s suspension ends on November 5, 2025, while Minner can return to fighting on March 26, 2025. With only a few months remaining until ‘El Jefe’s ban is lifted, the question remains — is he truly sorry for what he has done?

“I should have stopped,” Jeff Molina on his ‘wrongdoings’ after BKFC signing news

While speaking with Ariel Helwani, the banned fighter admitted that his decisions were gravely wrong. For the first time, after years of silence, Molina broke his silence to share his side of the story about the betting scandal that rocked the combat sports world back in 2022.

Molina admitted it was the victory that sparked his interest in betting on MMA for the first time. What began as a small WhatsApp group of just four or five people—led by James Krause—soon evolved into a booming Discord server that became a hotspot for insider betting tips. ‘El Jefe’ admitted that he bet $350 on his friend Minner to lose the fight, as he found out about the injury three weeks earlier, when he heard Minner scream in pain at the gym.

In his conversation with Helwani, Molina expressed that he has no harsh feelings for what the promotion did to him, “I have no bad blood with the UFC. They changed my life. I’m actually forever grateful that I got to fight amongst the best. I was ranked at the time. But with the conversation, they pretty much said, ‘We can’t go forward with you under the circumstances after the hearing, and we wish you the best in your future,’ and if I asked for my release, they’d grant it. So I went ahead and did that.”

Molina is grateful for everything he has achieved in his career so far, but will he be able to make a successful return to the Octagon? Share your thoughts in the comments below.