Tony Khan was on a call with the media today ahead of this Sunday’s (June 25) Forbidden Door pay-per-view.
The most interesting answer he gave throughout the hour long call was a flat out denial of yesterday’s report from The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani that the Khans are interested in purchasing the Bellator MMA promotion.
Tony adamantly denied this report and claimed he doesn’t even know who to talk to about purchasing Bellator.
“I was surprised to see that report. I haven’t had any conversations with them about that, so I don’t know what that was about. My father hasn’t had any conversations with them either. I’m not even sure who you talk to. I don’t even know honestly who owns the promotion. Is Scott Coker the owner or the president? I’m not sure...I saw that report, and yeah there’s really nothing to that. I’m not sure where that rumor got started.”
Khan made sure to take a shot at Helwani before moving on to the next question.
“I honestly have never had any talks, and my father has never had any talks about buying Bellator, so I was surprised to see that...Was that something Ariel Helwani reported? Okay, well it would not be the first inaccurate thing Ariel Helwani has reported. That is completely inaccurate, but that’s Ariel Helwani for you.”
The relationship between Helwani and Khan quickly fell apart after a tense interview last year where Khan went overboard plugging his own products while refusing to answer many of Helwani’s questions. Helwani, the MMA journalist who denies being a wrestling journalist, sharply criticized Khan and some wrestling fans in the aftermath of that interview. Their beef continued on social media and even during Helwani’s guest spots on WWE programming.
It looks like Tony has not forgotten about all of that, and their issues are far from over.
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