"Enough of the lying" - Ariel Helwani officially invites Belal Muhammad on show with fiery message in light of UFC champ's recent accusations
Ariel Helwani has issued an official invitation to Belal Muhammad on his show. This comes in the wake of the UFC welterweight champion making a few accusations against Helwani.
During Muhammad's recent appearance on ex-UFC fighter Jake Shields' Fight Back podcast, Shields suggested that Helwani dislikes Muhammad owing to their respective heritage. America's Shields alluded that the Canadian-American Helwani is Jewish and America's Muhammad is a Muslim of Palestinian descent.
Muhammad seemingly agreed with Shields. He reaffirmed that Ariel Helwani hasn't invited him on his podcast or accorded him the deserved respect. Helwani subsequently put forth a series of tweets, highlighting that he'd invited Belal Muhammad to appear on his shows/podcasts over the years. He noted that he'd given the fighter private and public invites.
Helwani notably underscored that when Colby Covington fought Leon Edwards for the welterweight title in Dec. 2023, he vocalized that Muhammad deserved the title shot more than Covington. He further underlined that Muhammad's manager, Ali Abdelaziz, routinely dissuades his fighters from appearing on his (Helwani's) show.
On The Ariel Helwani Show, Helwani has now issued another invite to Muhammad to appear on the show/podcast. Seemingly proposing that Muhammad could appear on the show on Monday, Dec. 16, 2024, Helwani stated:
"I'll go one step further. I'll name the date, and I'll name the time. Monday, let's say; that's our next show - 2 pm Eastern, 1 pm Central. Here's the invitation. Come on this show."
Additionally, Helwani noted that if Muhammad feels it's a ploy to benefit his ratings, he'd be willing to let him live-stream the episode on his own channel or even appear on his show/podcast. Emphasizing that Muhammad is within his rights to decline the invitation but mustn't spread untruths, Helwani added:
"Enough of the lying. Enough of the making up stories. You know for a fact that I've tried to have you on. And I've attempted to do it publicly and privately. You know for a fact that I bigged you up because, in fact, you have re-tweeted and commented on me bigging you up."
"I posted all this. I don't have anything ready. I have nothing. Usually, I put things up here. I have nothing. It's all on the timeline. You know for a fact that all of this is a lie. And I will leave it at that. I will keep it between us."
Check out Helwani's comments below:
Watch the episode below (*Helwani's assessment at 0:24-12:50):
Ariel Helwani responds to Jake Shields, posts purported screenshot of private invite to Belal Muhammad
Ariel Helwani has time and again asserted that he's open to hosting Belal Muhammad. He's often signaled that 'Remember the Name' doesn't accept his invitations and then levies accusations of not platforming and/or respecting him.
During the aforementioned podcast episode's 11:30-minute mark, Helwani deemed Shields a "bigot" for the polarizing socio-political assertions the latter makes on X and elsewhere about the Jewish community.
Belal Muhammad is expected to likely defend his title against Shavkat Rakhmonov sometime in 2025. Meanwhile, Ariel Helwani has continued to refute the allegations directed at him by Muhammad and Shields. Replying to one of Shields' tweets, Helwani posted a supposed screenshot from a podcast invite he'd privately issued in their chats in 2016.
Check out the screenshot in Helwani's tweet below: