There are many bad things that one can say about MMA journalist Ariel Helwani. But being prejudiced or holding any sort of racist or bigoted reservations is not one of them. However, UFC welterweight champion, Belal Muhammad disagrees. The champ went on former mixed martial artist Jake Shield’s show recently, claiming that Helwani hasn’t invited him on any of his show’s segments because of their heritage.

Muhammad is from a Palestinian background, while Helwani is Jewish and his family was forced to flee Lebanon for Canada allegedly because they faced persecution for their faith in their native land. This is the reason Muhammad feels that their family background is why Helwani has never had him on. Helwani responded immediately on social media, asserting that Muhammad was ‘lying’ and that ‘Bully B’ knows “for a fact that I’ve tried to have you on.”

In addition, he presented an open invite to ‘Bully B’, asking him to come on the show on Monday. However, Muhammad didn’t go on his show and given the severity of the accusations against him, the journalist felt fit to respond on his YouTube show. “You may have noticed that there is no Belal Muhammad on today’s program after everything that happened last week on the show. And so not only is he not on today’s show, he completely ignored my public invitation… When he sits there and says that I won’t have him on because of his heritage, remember how dangerous of an accusation that is,” Helwani said on his show.

Of course, being accused of essentially being racist and bigoted is a very powerful charge, which could ruin someone’s, especially a public figure like Helwani’s reputation. This is why Helwani wanted to make it clear that Muhammad’s Muslim-Palestinian heritage is not the reason ‘Bully B’ has never been on his show.

“If you wanna come on, great. If you don’t wanna come on, great, that’s your prerogative. I’m not gonna beg anyone, but I bring this up if only because he continues to say I don’t have him on because of his heritage and that is a 1000% lie. And, I take that to heart because of my family history, so please recognize that,” the journalist asserted. But that was not all as the journalist came with receipts, which he shared on social media.

Ariel Helwani shows proof he invited Belal Muhammad on his show and supported him

On social media, Ariel Helwani even shared screenshots of a text conversation that he apparently had with Belal Muhammad’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz back in 2016. The texts clearly showed that Helwani was trying to get ‘Bully B’ on his show, even trying to finalize an exact time. But Abdelaziz told the journalist he would “confirm the time”. 

It seems the manager never did so since Muhammad did not go on Helwani’s show in 2016. The journalist also responded to the charge that he had never praised, hyped up, or spoken in favor of him in all these years, which further fueled the buzz that Helwani doesn’t like the 170lbs king owing to his Palestinian descent.

To which Helwani showed him a bunch of his old clips proving otherwise. The Canadian pointed out that he was the one who spoke up last year when Colby Covington was given a title shot before Muhammad, and said that ‘Bully B’ deserved to fight for the title more. Not to mention he pointed out that even Muhammad himself had re-tweeted Helwani when he had ‘bigged up’ the UFC champ. What do you think about Ariel Helwani’s response to Belal Muhammad?