Federal agents quizzed Hernandez over fight-fixing suspicions after UFC 324 cancellation

Alexander Hernandez was questioned by federal agents over suspicions he intended to throw his scheduled UFC 324 fight against Michael Johnson, after the January bout was cancelled at the last minute amid unusual betting-line movement that swung the odds sharply in Johnson’s favour.

Hernandez had opened as a sizable favourite, but money reportedly flooded in on Johnson the day before the fight, prompting the cancellation and a subsequent federal inquiry. Hernandez said agents asked him whether he had any “incriminating apps” on his phone — a question he admitted he did not initially understand.

“They’re like, ‘Do you have any incriminating apps?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t even know what an incriminating app would look like,’” Hernandez told Ariel Helwani. “They say, ‘Signal,’ and I’m like, ‘What’s Signal?’”

At the agents’ request, Hernandez reinstalled the Signal messaging app. What they found was far from a match-fixing conspiracy: one message was from a bot, and the other was an exchange in which Hernandez had tried to buy a gram of marijuana while in Brazil.

“I was like, ‘OK, that’s kind of embarrassing. That’s a pssy amount, I’ll admit that, but it was certainly not insider trading, not throwing a f**ing fight,’” Hernandez said. “Embarrassing exchange, sure. Federal charge, I’d say not… I probably sat in there spinning our wheels together for nearly an hour, I’d imagine.”

Hernandez described the episode as “embarrassing” but maintained there was nothing in his phone to suggest any wrongdoing related to the cancelled fight.

Since the Johnson bout fell apart, Hernandez suffered a decision loss to Rafa Garcia in April, ending a four-fight winning streak. He now returns at UFC 332 on Saturday at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, where he faces former lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos.