"The fastball has lost a few miles on it" - Ariel Helwani ranks Eddie Hearn above Dana White as the best promoter in combat sports 

Ariel Helwani feels Eddie Hearn is the best promoter in the entire combat sports industry right now. Although Helwani and UFC president Dana White have been at loggerheads for a long time, the MMA journalist claims he isn't ranking Hearn above White as a knock on the latter.

According to Helwani, Eddie Hearn is currently the best promoter in the world because of his passion for the sport of boxing and the zeal to become the best in the world at what he does.

Having recently worked with him, Helwani pointed out that Hearn does as many media interactions as possible and promotes all fights on the card equally.

Having said that, Helwani also labeled Dana White as one of the top five promoters of all time but claims that he has slowed down over the years. During a recent interaction with Fight Hub TV, the Canadian journalist stated:

"Right now, pound-for-pound, I think Eddie Hearn is the best at what he does. Dana White, as great as he is, he's top five greatest promoters of all time but let's be honest, the fastball has lost a few miles on it, you know. He's throwing 85 [whereas] Eddie's throwing 99. I see this guy doing interviews with every single person and not only talking about the main event, he's talking about the first fight of the night all the way to the top so I think he's the best right now."

Watch Helwani's interview below:

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Ariel Helwani isn't ready to rule out possibility of Francis Ngannou beating Tyson Fury in a boxing match

Ariel Helwani wants to see Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury battle it out inside the boxing ring down the line. According to the 39-year-old, the UFC heavyweight champion deserves to get a big payday in a unique hybrid-rules fight against 'The Gypsy King', which will attract many eyeballs across the globe.

Helwani also believes that Tyson Fury isn't retiring despite the latter claiming otherwise following his knockout win over Dillian Whyte. After a potential fight with Ngannou next year, Helwani believes Fury will take on the winner of Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk.

While fans and analysts believe Tyson Fury will easily defeat Francis Ngannou in a boxing match, Helwani feels that 'The Predator' has an outside chance of winning the fight.

He pointed out that the fighters will be wearing MMA gloves and with the power in Ngannou's hands, a clean strike could put Fury in trouble:

"Yeah [Ngannou can win], they're gonna fight with MMA gloves supposedly, so why not? It's a different type of thing. Hey, if they let some knees and some kicks, anything [can happen]."