Ali Abdelaziz claims punching Ariel Helwani is like 'punching a woman'

Ali Abdelaziz has taken a shot at Ariel Helwani on social media.

It’s no secret that Ariel Helwani is one of the most polarising figures in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Despite his soft-spoken nature, the veteran MMA journalist has been at odds with fighters, managers, trainers and fellow journalists. His most recent feud being with the owner of Dominance MMA, Ali Abdelaziz.

Ali Abdelaziz took a dig at Ariel Helwani on Twitter today by quoting a tweet involving another prominent MMA journalist, Luke Thomas.

Recently Luke Thomas was asked a question on his live show on youtube asking if he would punch Ariel Helwani. The question wasn’t out of the ordinary as it’s no secret that there’s a lot of bad blood between the two.

“That was funny,” Luke Thomas said laughingly after a long pause. “[Long pause] [smirk]….No No I don’t think you win by that kind of violence. I think you win by the power of your ideas and the content of your character.”

Ali Abdelaziz replied by stating that punching Helwani was like punching a woman.

I think he would, he thought about it too much. But punching him is like punching a woman, you’ll get no credit. Slap is the best way. 😂 https://t.co/OZvbOtdTCV
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) July 21, 2020

“I think he would, he thought about it too much. But punching him is like punching a woman, you’ll get no credit. Slap is the best way,” Abdelaziz tweeted.

Ali Abdelaziz bans ESPN from interviewing his fighters

The situation between Ali Abdelaziz and Ariel Helwani got messy after Helwani stated that Ali’s client Gilbert Burns needed to fight Leon Edwards to eventually get a shot at Kamaru Usman for the UFC welterweight title.

Following this, Ali Abdelaziz took to twitter and said that ESPN and Canada’s TSN were banned from interviewing fighters signed with Dominance MMA.

All @espnmma you have been banned from talking to any Dominance fighters because you have a reporter who’s targeting my champions. You need an immediate investigation for corruption today.
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) July 13, 2020

“All @espnmma you have been banned from talking to any Dominance fighters because you have a reporter who’s targeting my champions. You need an immediate investigation for corruption today,” Ali Abdelaziz tweeted.

I love what @espnmma brings to the table. They have great reporters Brett Okomoto, Marc Raimondi, Jeff Wagenheim. I have no issue with these guys but enough is enough.
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) July 13, 2020

“I love what @espnmma brings to the table. They have great reporters Brett Okomoto, Marc Raimondi, Jeff Wagenheim. I have no issue with these guys but enough is enough,” he said.

Also, TSN is on the banned list https://t.co/YECs0zYjga
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) July 13, 2020

“Also, TSN is on the banned list,” Ali Abdelaziz said in his concluding tweet.

The thought about banning outlets like ESPN and TSN from interviewing UFC fighters isn’t as easy as it seems. ESPN is the official broadcaster of UFC in the US and has shelled out billions of dollars to secure the streaming and broadcast rights. On the other hand, TSN is the official broadcaster of UFC events in Canada.