While Ariel Helwani’s recent issues with the UFC may be water under the bridge for now, UFC commentator Joe Rogan had some comments on the situation earlier this week on his podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’.
Rogan stated that Helwani may have been warned prior to releasing the news of the highly-anticipated return of former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar at UFC 200:
“Now, I get the UFC’s perspective. They would wanna know who the f’ck is leaking this secret information, and that they don’t want this guy taking this information and putting it live.
Now from what I understand, the conversation with him was, ‘Don’t do this, because if you do this, there’s only a hand full of people who know this information. So we’re gonna fire everybody.
We’re gonna fire a bunch of people and you’re gonna ruin people’s lives’. This is what I was told, was a conversation they had with him. After the conversation he leaked the Brock Lesnar stuff.”
Helwani was quick to respond to these allegations on Twitter:
The journalist would go on to further address Rogan’s comments on his own show, The MMA Hour, stating that the UFC never warned him not to report the groundbreaking news:
“I don’t really feel I need to address the Joe Rogan conspiracy theory, ’cause that’s all it is,” Helwani explained. “I tweeted it was 1,000 percent inaccurate.
No one told me not to report anything, no one told me that if I did report something, people would lose their jobs. It’s obvious where that is coming from, and I’d wish that, given his platform and his reach, that… you know, some people wrote back to me and were saying, ‘Joe didn’t speak to you.’
Well then that’s irresponsible. You’re talking about something now that you don’t know and you’re getting only one side of the story. And it’s a very sensitive thing and it involves my career. And when trust and respect and confidence are very important things, it’s very damaging when you come out with things like that.
Helwani ended the subject by reiterating that he did not ‘leak’ any information, and that he does not in fact have any ‘moles’ feeding him information:
“No one ever gave me that warning, and I didn’t leak anything, and I certainly don’t have any moles. I have not planted anything or anyone in the company to find out this information, and I haven’t gotten this information unethically or illegally.
All that stuff, I can assure you, you can throw it all out the window, it’s a lie. And I know other people are trying to hold the UFC’s water by throwing this out there, and it’s ridiculous. Quite frankly: You’re just making yourself look worse when you’re putting this out there, so stop it. Move on, it’s over.”
Helwani and his associates’ ban has since been revoked, and the journalist will be allowed to cover the upcoming blockbuster event that is UFC 200 this July.
You can watch the full show here bellow:
(All transcribed quotes courtesy of The Bloody Elbow)
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