UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland has raised questions about the relationship between FBI Director Kash Patel and prominent mixed martial arts manager Ali Abdelaziz.
During an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show, Strickland shifted from his experiences in the UFC and his difficult upbringing to allegations involving Abdelaziz. Strickland said Abdelaziz is “best friends with Kash Patel” and questioned why the pair remain closely connected.
Strickland claimed Abdelaziz was arrested in Colorado in the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks over alleged falsified documents and multiple passports. He further said Abdelaziz later became an informant for the FBI and was assigned an informant number while providing information about Muslim organizations.
“He gets out, they give him a lie detector test because they suspect him lying,” Strickland said during the interview. “His nickname was the Dolphin because he would talk so much.”
Strickland alleged that Abdelaziz failed the test and later faced restrictions on international travel. He characterized Abdelaziz as an informant with troubling connections, while also acknowledging that he was relying on information he had encountered elsewhere.
“Don’t sue me. This is what I know and this is what the book says,” Strickland said.
Abdelaziz is one of the most influential managers in MMA, representing several high-profile athletes and maintaining relationships throughout professional combat and conservative political circles. Meanwhile, Patel has become a prominent figure in the federal government and a close ally of President Donald Trump.
According to sources, the questions surrounding Abdelaziz’s relationship with Patel resurfaced after the two were photographed together at the wedding of former acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba. A photo shared by federal prosecutor Sigal Chattah showed Habba, her husband Turhan Mildon, Abdelaziz and Patel together at the wedding festivities.
Abdelaziz’s past as an FBI and NYPD informant has been documented in published accounts. According to the 2013 book Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD’s Secret Spying Unit and bin Laden’s Final Plot Against America, Abdelaziz was recruited by the NYPD to work as an informant against Muslims of America, a Virginia-based organization.
The book’s authors wrote that authorities later became suspicious of him after a polygraph examination and believed he could be acting as a double agent. The account also states that the FBI subsequently attempted to deport Abdelaziz but was unable to do so.
The photograph prompted renewed scrutiny of Patel’s connection to Abdelaziz. Journalist Michael Weiss also commented on the image, pointing to Abdelaziz’s history as an FBI informant and the allegations that he had later been suspected of working as a double agent.
