Yesterday, John Nash at Bloody Elbow wrote a detailed article about the alleged conflict of interest at the center of World Series of Fighting. Specifically, the issue of whether or not Ali Abdelaziz serves as matchmaker while also serving as a manager of fighters via Dominance MMA. While references to Abdelaziz have been removed from Dominance’s website since Nash first asked about the issue, there are still traces of him there, like the Google meta descriptions for pages on the site:
I know it goes w/o saying, but more reminders that Ali Abdelaziz expurgated himself from the Dominance MMA site… pic.twitter.com/YB37fYO14U
— David Bixenspan (@davidbix) November 24, 2015
In addition, Dominance fighters such as Frankie Edgar have openly referred to Abdelaziz as their manager, with Edgar doing so on The Ultimate Fighter when he brought him in as a grappling coach. Various Dominance fighters are signed with WSOF, including Bantamweight champion Marlon Moraes. To complicate matters, WSOF’s Nevada Athletic Commission paperwork lists Ray Sefo as matchmaker even though Abdelaziz is constantly put out there as the matchmaker and referred to as such in the media. This is a violation of NAC rules.
Today, the issue was complicated by these tweets from MMA journalist Mike Russell, which included screenshots purporting to show skimming as well as trading a Bellator sponsorship for a WSOF contract (as you’ll see, for one of these, I tweeted a new version myself due to a redaction issue):
h/t @MIKERUSSELLMMA for the Ali smoking gun. Redacted his cell # since it was in the orig. RTing his for the rest. pic.twitter.com/kGbu72by2e
— David Bixenspan (@davidbix) November 24, 2015
Jan '13 email I sent Lampman proving Ali was in COI. He traded Bellator sponsorship for his guy for WSOF contracts. pic.twitter.com/hZamk0J23h
— Mike Russell (@MIKERUSSELLMMA) November 24, 2015
WSOF owner Shawn Lampman called me personally to apologize for Ali's conflicts of interest & shady business dealings when I sent him proof.
— Mike Russell (@MIKERUSSELLMMA) November 24, 2015
Cody Bollinger claimed to have gotten a similar WSOF offer to the one that looks like it shows some kind of skimming. Abdelaziz has yet to comment on any of the allegations.
