UFC’s flyweight Jeff Molina is currently under suspension from the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC). Molina trained under controversial coach James Krause for the majority of his career.
Molina is 25 years old and has been with the UFC since a successful stint on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020. He is 3-0 in UFC and has an MMA record consisting of 11 wins and 2 losses.
Molina was supposed to face Jimmy Flick on January 14th card in Las Vegas but withdrew from the contest. He withdrew a day after UFC announced that they won’t be featuring any athletes training under James Krause. This was in fall out from the fight-fixing investigation that is still ongoing.
In a leaked message to ESPN, Molina wrote in the Discord channel:
“He’s trained w/ a lot of the fighters, lives and breathes this sport as a coach/fighter, & at times has the scoop on injuries — non-announced matchups — how fighters look like in camp, etc.”
“In stocks this is called insider trading in MMA betting it’s called James Krause. For the last 6 months all my bills including mortgage and car note have been paid via Krause’s picks. Do yourself a favor and join the VIP.”
It is unclear whether or not this contributed to the commission suspending Molina. However, Molina and Krause’s reputations will undoubtedly suffer as a result.
Molina previously opened up on a podcast about the effect betting has had on his financial security:
“I was telling you this off camera, but it was I’ve gotten really heavy into betting probably since late July, like before it was $20 plays, you know, at most $50 plays. And my heart was racing at that point. And then late July is when I start treating it like a job. My coach James Krauss is, is really good at this man.”
Molina went on to say Krause was his mentor:
“he’s a mentor to me and he kind of taught me the, kind of showed me the ropes. ”
Molina detailed he was obsessively watching tape adding:
“And I hate to ramble, but it’s just I treat this like a job. And it’s worked really well for me the last couple of months.”
Molina explains he got into it after quitting his fulltime job to do MMA. He was paranoid about the chances of a catastrophic knee injury that could leave him unable to provide for himself:
“I was like, Man, no passive income coming in. I could blow my knee tomorrow and yet and not fight for a year.”
“So I had to talk with James and he told me about what he does. And man, we’ve been killing it.”