Decorated mixed martial arts (MMA) journalist Ariel Helwani addressed his highly controversial “lifetime ban” after he was escorted out of last weekend’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 by UFC officials during an emotional episode of his show “The MMA Hour” today that featured no one but himself and his story. While Helwani’s candid re-telling
Decorated mixed martial arts (MMA) journalist Ariel Helwani addressed his highly controversial “lifetime ban” after he was escorted out of last weekend’s (Sat., June 4, 2016) UFC 199 by UFC officials during an emotional episode of his show “The MMA Hour” today that featured no one but himself and his story.
While Helwani’s candid re-telling of his respected career and his mercurial relationship with the UFC was no doubt a harrowing and tense account, it appears that the promotion is unwilling to relent on their extremely harsh sanctions levied against the award-winning writer and interviewer. TMZ asked UFC President Dana White if Helwani was truly banned, and White said he could, but will never be credentialed:
“He can cover all the events he wants, he just can’t have a credential.”
White was then asked if Helwani could cover July 9’s blockbuster UFC 200 if he bought a ticket, to which White said he could. But apparently the ban on credentials for Helwani is going to last, as he revealed the ban would last “as long as I’m here.”
No official reason has been given for Helwani’s harsh punishment, but the widely-believed report is that he was kicked out and banned for breaking the blockbuster Brock Lesnar news about the former champion’s shocking return at UFC 200, in addition to the official announcement of the finally-booked welterweight rematch between Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor in the main event of August 20’s UFC 200.
The consensus from the MMA fan and journalistic community has been one of overwhelming support for Helwani, for which he repeatedly thanked all of his many supporters in this trying time. But with him banned without an apparent end in site, Helwani’s ability to cover the biggest MMA events in the world to the fullest of his ability has obviously been seriously hindered.
With a brutal and now personal grudge driven between MMA’s clear frontrunner and the sport’s best journalist, this mess doesn’t seem to be close to being cleared up anytime soon. Helwani doesn’t seem to be going anyway lightly, however, so perhaps it should be.
UFC 199 was far more than just a dramatic filled night for the fighters, as highly respected MMA journalist Ariel Helwani engaged in a bit of drama himself. Helwani revealed on Twitter shortly following the card’s co-main event that he and his staff had been escorted out of the arena, as well as having their
UFC 199 was far more than just a dramatic filled night for the fighters, as highly respected MMA journalist Ariel Helwani engaged in a bit of drama himself.
Helwani revealed on Twitter shortly following the card’s co-main event that he and his staff had been escorted out of the arena, as well as having their credentials removed and given a life-long ban from all future UFC events.
Monday afternoon Helwani detailed the incident in it’s entirety, live on The MMA Hour:
“Right before the main event, a member of the UFC PR staff told me that ‘Dana White wants to speak to you’. Michael Bisping was about to fight Luke Rockhold, and I had the feeling this wasn’t going to be the most pleasant conversation, and I didn’t feel like anything was good going to come out of it. So I said look ‘I want to watch this fight, I don’t really want to go back and talk to him.’”
Helwani, however, appeared to have no choice but to speak to the UFC President, so he brought along a colleague as he did not feel comfortable going in alone:
“A couple minutes later, a higher ranking PR person came to me in a very serious way and said ‘you must come to the back.’ And I said ‘I’m not going to the back unless my colleague Casey can come with me.’
I didn’t want to go alone. I didn’t know what was going to happen, I wasn’t going to go into that storm alone. After some back and forth he agreed to let Casey come back with me.
So we go to the back, it was just a hallway a few steps from the media room, the main event is about to start by the way, and Dana White is there, some other members of his team are there, and he just says to me ‘You’re out, get out of here. You’re done, we don’t want you here anymore, go to Bellator.’
I said ‘Why?’ He said ‘You’re too negative’. I said ‘How is what I’m doing any different than all of the other great sports journalists out there?’ “
Apparently UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was not too pleased with Helwani’s releasing of the news that former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar would be returning to the Octagon at UFC 200:
“I was talking about a guy who was getting ready to sign a contract to fight, I wasn’t talking about super secretive stuff. I wasn’t talking about the sell. I wasn’t talking about disparaging things. It’s all a little bit embarrassing because I’m not doing any real investigative journalism here. This is fight stuff.
He said, ‘Lorenzo wanted you out of FOX’, and that happened ,’and he want’s you out of here and so you’re out.’ Now I will say a lot was said in this conversation, I think initially he wanted it to just be ‘You’re out see you later.’ But a lot of words where said and a lot of what I thought were mean spirited things things were said. “
Helwani was reluctant to reveal just what was ‘all said’ during his exchange with White, however, he did express his admiration for the UFC’s President:
“I’m not going to betray that trust, despite the fact that they did that, and I’m not going to repeat all of it. But when you have someone of Dana’s stature saying the things he said to me it does affect you.
I said look Dana, as I’ve said in many interviews and as I’ve said on this show, I owe a lot to Dana White in particular. I really do.
And I don’t think he was torn up over it, I think he was pretty upset that I beat them to the punch so to speak, but that’s how I kind of felt in the moment.”
White also told Helwani that Lesnar himself was apparently very upset with the news of his return leaking out before the promo was revealed:
“He also said that Brock Lesnar was really upset about the news, now its interesting, Brock Lesnar went on ESPN Sports Center and said he doesn’t know who I am.
Of course thats not true, thats just Brock being Brock, he has said this many times before. The whole Undertaker thing, I don’t really take offense to that, but I did ask some people if that was true, about him being upset, and they said that couldn’t be any further from the truth.
Brock Lesnar is getting paid a lot of money to fight at UFC 200, he couldn’t care less who’s reporting what. I think we know that by now, when it comes to Brock. “
A UFC PR spokesman then told Helwani that he should have had the ‘professional courtesy’ to run the news by them first:
“In the midst of this conversation, the PR person standing behind Dana White said that I could have had the professional courtesy to run this by them.
This to me is an unbelievable line of thinking. Why? Well how about the fact that the night before, Brett Okamoto of ESPN asked Dana White if Brock was in negotiations to fight at UFC 200, and he told him no.
So whats the difference? You think he was going to tell me that? At best I would’ve gotten a ‘no comment.’
I probably would have gotten a ‘don’t report that’ as I’ve gotten in the past. And been forced to sit on things, as I’ve been forced to in the past.”
A passionate Helwani then went on to say that there is nowhere in the ‘rulebook’ that says you must run things by the company you’re reporting on before doing so:
“I graduated form one of the very best journalism schools in the world, Syracuse University, the SI Newhouse School Of Communications, and trust me nowhere in the rulebook does it say you have to run things by the the organization when you’re about to report them.
What they do teach you is, if you have at least two credible sources confirming this news, and you feel strongly and are confident that this is right, you’re good to go.
No matter what it is. So to hear that I should have had the professional courtesy, to run something by them, to me is just mind-blowing. Because time and time again we’re either told ‘no comment’ or we’re just lied to. “
Helwani then stated he does not hold any ‘ill wills’ towards White, and that he hopes the conflict can soon be resolved:
“So I told Dana that I really thank him for everything that he’s done for me, again I don’t hold any ill will’s towards him. He’s done a lot, I extended my hand to shake his hand, and I think he shook I don’t remember to be honest but I think he did.
And I said ‘I hate that this is happening and I hope that at some point you will reconsider this, I understand that you are mad and I’m not going to create a stink. But I really hope that cooler heads will prevail.’ “
White apparently also tole one of Helwani’s colleagues that his wife, who was sitting cage -side, also had to leave the arena:
“He then looked at Casey, who has been my videographer since 2009, my partner in crime I think he’s the best, not just in MMA but in sports, and asks him if his fiancee, he referred to her as wife but they’re not married just yet, asked him if she was cage side.
He said yes, and Dana said that she has to leave as well. And that really bugged me because they did nothing wrong. I’ve been with them for a long time, and I consider them good friends, and I didn’t want to see them leave and not be able to do they’re jobs.
And I hope this doesn’t affect MMAFighting, if it effects me– my colleagues didn’t do anything wrong and to be honest I didn’t do anything wrong, but at the end of the day they’re mad at my reporting. Im the one. They shouldn’t have to face repercussions in my opinion. “
The group was escorted from the arena all the way to their vehicles in the parking lot, making Helwani feel like he was ‘being watched like a dog’:
“He told me to leave, again other things were said not that important at this moment to go over them, I thanked him and we went to the back.
Someone followed us, someone stayed with us as we packed all our stuff, it was disappointing Michael Bisping’s music was playing and it was all just very surreal. They watched us, like we were— I felt like I was being watched like I was a dog, they watched us pack our things and they walked us out.
Like literally walked us out till we were pretty much next to our car just to make sure. In fact as we were about to go into the care I opened Twitter, and I saw that Michael Bisping became the middleweight champion I was like ‘I can’t believe all this is happening.’ “
Helwani was extremely emotional during the course of the show, however he did state that it was going to take a lot more than this to get rid of him as he claims he plans to stay covering the sport for a long time. Do you think we’ll ever see Helwani back at a UFC event again?
UFC 199 took Inglewood, California by storm last weekend (Sat., June 4, 2016) on pay-per-view (PPV), and MMA fans were blessed with one of the most exciting events in recent memory. Of all thirteen bouts that took place Saturday night, eight of them ended with someone taking an early nap on the canvas. Title contenders emerged, rivalries
UFC 199 took Inglewood, California by storm last weekend (Sat., June 4, 2016) on pay-per-view (PPV), and MMA fans were blessed with one of the most exciting events in recent memory.
Of all thirteen bouts that took place Saturday night, eight of them ended with someone taking an early nap on the canvas. Title contenders emerged, rivalries were ended, legacies were solidified, and a new champion was crowned to the surprise of many.
Aside from the event itself, a pair of exciting developments were revealed, as a rematch between two brash rivals was made official, and a former champion’s return was shockingly unveiled.
UFC 199 has given us plenty to talk about, so let’s jump right into the seven biggest takeaways from the groundbreaking night of fights…
As if UFC 199 wasn’t crazy enough, highly respected MMA journalist Ariel Helwani has reportedly been ‘banned for life’ from all future UFC events for reasons not yet confirmed. Helwani alerted the MMA community via Twitter that he had been escorted out of the arena by Zuffa staff, following the conclusion of the co-main event
As if UFC 199 wasn’t crazy enough, highly respected MMA journalist Ariel Helwani has reportedly been ‘banned for life’ from all future UFC events for reasons not yet confirmed.
Helwani alerted the MMA community via Twitter that he had been escorted out of the arena by Zuffa staff, following the conclusion of the co-main event bantamweight title bout between Dominick Cruz and Urijah Faber.
Earlier today Helwani took to Twitter once more to thank fans and fighters for their support, and stated he would address the issue on The MMA Hour tomorrow:
Thank you. I sincerely can’t thank you all enough. I’m still here. All will be addressed tomorrow on #themmahour, as well as other outlets.
It’s hard to wrap my head around all of this, but to everyone fan, fighter, manager, friend who reached out: thank you.
And to every journalist/media member who tweeted or reached out: I’m eternally grateful to you. Thank you all very much. Until tomorrow…
FTR, I will forever be proud to be an MMA journalist. I am proud of that title and take the responsibility that comes w/ it seriously.
Helwani also spoke to Yahoo Sports for a brief period of time, describing the incident that went down Saturday night:
“I was brought to the back by UFC [public relations] and told by Dana White that I had to leave the arena,” Helwani said. “Dana mentioned that from what I recalled that Brock Lesnar was upset the news was released early and that this could have ruined their deal.
It was then, Helwani said, that UFC President Dana White accused the journalist of having a ‘mole’ on the inside feeding him information:
“He repeatedly said, ‘Go cover Bellator. We don’t want you here.’ … I said, ‘What did I do wrong?’ He said, ‘You’re too negative.’
“I never go off one source anyway, so I guess they’re saying now there are two moles,” Helwani said. “But with God as my witness, there is no ‘mole.’ Honestly, I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this. I’m almost embarrassed because people are saying, ‘You’re standing up for journalism.’
“I’m not doing any great investigative journalism here. This is not ground-breaking stuff. I’m not going to win a Pulitzer for this.”
You can check out Helwani’s Tweets from today bellow:
Thank you. I sincerely can't thank you all enough. I'm still here. All will be addressed tomorrow on #themmahour, as well as other outlets.
It looks like one of MMA’s most prominent journalists and on-air personalities has split from his position with UFC on FOX. Ariel Helwani, the longtime host of MMA Fighting’s The MMA Hour and a prominent member of the UFC on FOX broadcast team as well as FOX Sports 1’s ‘UFC Tonight,’ announced on Twitter today
It looks like one of MMA’s most prominent journalists and on-air personalities has split from his position with UFC on FOX.
Ariel Helwani, the longtime host of MMA Fighting’s The MMA Hour and a prominent member of the UFC on FOX broadcast team as well as FOX Sports 1’s ‘UFC Tonight,’ announced on Twitter today (Wed., March 23, 2016) that he has parted ways with UFC on FOX in an amicable split.
Helwani said he holds no ill will towards FOX and will continue on with his full-time job as an integral member of MMAFighting.com:
I wanted to let you know that I’ve parted ways with the UFC on FOX. That means I’ll no longer be appearing on UFC Tonight, as well as the event coverage on FS1.
It’s been an honor and a privilege to cover the sport for FOX. I was one of the first on-air MMA people hired back in 2011, and I met some wonderful people along the way. I hope to work with some them again at some point. I thank everyone involved for the opportunity.
But I’m completely at peace with this decision and believe it’s for the best.
While working at FOX was great, it was always a part-time job. My full-time job since 2009 has been working for MMAFighting.com. Nothing has changed there. The MMA Hour will air on Monday, The MMA Beat tomorrow … all status quo. I humbly believe that I am a part of the best team in the business, working for the best bosses in the business.
Anyway, perhaps I’ll talk about this more on Monday’s show.
For now, thanks to all of you, the amazing fans of this great sport, for your incredible support since the beginning of my career. I do not take it for granted, and it sincerely means the world to me. Thank you for always watching/listening/reading.
As Jay-Z once said, on to the next one …
Ariel
No reasoning was given for Helwani’s departure from the network, and no word has arrived if his breaking of the rumored Nate Diaz vs. Conor McGregor rematch as the main event of UFC 200 has anything to do with it.
As he revealed in his statement, perhaps that will be discussed during the next episode of The MMA Hour this Monday.
Regardless, Helwani has been a thorough, descriptive, informative, and engaging reporter, which is made clearly evident by his many awards in his nearly five years working with UFC on FOX, and he will obviously continue to do so at MMA Fighting, so we at LowKick MMA wish him nothing but the best in all of his future endeavors.
After an abundance of trash talk, a pre-fight press conference brawl, asking pussies if they’re still there, technical breakdowns, and moving betting lines, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier duked it out for five rounds in an early “Fight of the Year” candidate, which went exactly how most of us thought it would. The main card of UFC 182, however, was pretty putrid.
Our excitement was at an all-time high, which is rare nowadays when it comes to MMA in general. This truly felt like 2008 all over again, but sometimes, we rely on nostalgia to compare upcoming fight cards that may or may not be worth viewing live.
Nevertheless, Jones vs. Cormier lived up to the billing, as both light heavyweights engaged in a dogfight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV., this past Saturday night.
After an abundance of trash talk, a pre-fight press conference brawl, asking pussies if they’re still there, technical breakdowns, and moving betting lines, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier duked it out for five rounds in an early “Fight of the Year” candidate, which went exactly how most of us thought it would. The main card of UFC 182, however, was pretty putrid.
Our excitement was at an all-time high, which is rare nowadays when it comes to MMA in general. This truly felt like 2008 all over again, but sometimes, we rely on nostalgia to compare upcoming fight cards that may or may not be worth viewing live.
Nevertheless, Jones vs. Cormier lived up to the billing, as both light heavyweights engaged in a dogfight at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, NV., this past Saturday night.
Truth be told, their fight couldn’t have come any sooner to save the day. There was uncontrolled excitement running through our veins Saturday morning, but after the FOX Sports 1 and Fight Pass prelims concluded, we were better off rummaging through our Twin Peaks Definitive Gold Box Edition and watching some of our favorite episodes.
The prelims were off to a raucous start, with Marion Reneau pummeling Alexis Dufresne in a unanimous decision win, and making the latter look like she came straight out of those So You Wanna Fight? events we used to see on our PPV listing (they must be at #341 by now…talk about real oversaturation). The highlight from that fight was Dufresne’s pathetic corner, who had too much pride to throw in the towel and actually made it seen like their fighter could have bounced back when she lost every second of that fight.
After Omari Akhmedov and Evan Dunham returned to winning ways over Mats Nilsson and Rodrigo Damm, respectively, Shawn Jordan scored another highlight-reel knockout over the debuting Jared Cannonier. Then, Team Alpha Male witnessed some ups and downs, as rising prospect Cody Garbrandt scored a stoppage victory over Marcus Brimage with 10 seconds left in the round.
Although the happiness was short-lived, as Paul Felder, taking the fight on short notice, blasted Danny Castillo with a spinning back forearm that sent “Last Call” into the Himalayas. If Garbrandt was seen as one of the starlets of the under card, the undefeated lightweight stole his thunder minutes later, and even walked out of Las Vegas $50,000 richer. The downside is with the sheer volume of athletes competing inside the Octagon these days, it’s impossible for bar bros to remember their names come Monday morning.
The main card was supposed to be off to bang, since Hector Lombard was going to smother the returning Josh Burkman in seconds. However, the former WSOF welterweight title challenger hung in there, hands down and guns blazing, stepping up to “Showeather” and looked good early. Lombard eventually cracked Burkman enough times to convince us the scrap was a lot more lopsided than we initially thought, earning the unanimous decision victory and disappointing UFC President Dana White in the process, since he thought the winner should have tried harder to finish.
Then, it all went miserably downhill from there. You know, there are plenty of things to do on a Saturday night when staying in. MMA fans have sacrificed hitting the club or having a meaningful social life outside of the bubble, and that’s okay. But watching the next three fights (all involving popular fighters like Donald Cerrone, Nate Marquardt, and according to Fightland, the next Prime Minister of Japan, flyweight Kyoji Horiguchi), over the NFL wildcard playoff between the Steelers vs. the Ravens, Saturday Night Live, a black market copy of Birdman, or Louie on Netflix was an absurd decision. I’m not saying the main card of UFC 182 wins The 2015 Potato Award for Greatest-Hype Deflation, but it’s definitely worth consideration.
The main event was a straight-up dogfight, and even looked like a street fight at times. The battle was highly competitive for the first three rounds, as “Bones” was off to a flashy start, throwing strikes from every angle with every limb. It was the back-and-forth scuffle we hoped it would be, thanks to “D.C.” staying in Jones’ face and willing to close the distance, or better yet, nullify the champion’s reach advantage in the clinch. If the first round went to Jones, then it was fair to award Cormier the second.
The tide turned when Jones, who swore he could take down Cormier and presumably started this mess, took the Olympic wrestler down at will, and stuffed his adversary’s attempts, too. From that moment on, it seemed as if Cormier let the fight slip past him, with AKA’s Javier Mendez and Bob Cook yelling in his face while he sat on the stool before the fifth frame.
The challenger didn’t do much to finish the fight in the final round like he needed to, and instead, went for the takedown because of pride issues. He scored somewhat of a toss, and grappled with the champion when he should have separated and swung for the fences. As the fight concluded, Jones, who had given “D.C.” the crotch chop seconds after the final horn, blasted his adversary in his post-fight interview and told fans to return their “Break Bones” t-shirts. Finally, “Bones” embraced the heel persona, and did as good as Shawn Michaels did on The Barber Shop.
A while back, UFC announcer Bruce Buffer compared Jones to Muhammad Ali. Considering Jones was prepping for the Ryan Bader fight at UFC 126, and hadn’t even won his coveted 205-pound strap yet, some knew the comparison would eventually come to fruition, while others chose not to believe it. Ironically, leading up to this contest, there was a lot of talk as Jones being Ali, and Cormier serving as his Joe Frazier, even though “Bones” thought Alexander Gustafsson better suited the part.
However which way the media wants to spin it, Jones isn’t Ali, and quite frankly, he’s something even greater in the sport of MMA. Nobody talks the same way as they did when referring to Anderson Silva and Fedor Emilianenko, and with Georges St-Pierre absent from the whole scenario, Jones truly is the greatest fighter on planet earth right now, and maybe the greatest ever. It’s not like the main event was as close as Jones’ scrap against “The Mauler” at UFC 165.
When it comes to “Gus,” if the Swede beats Anthony Johnson later this month at UFC on FOX 14, he’s obviously next. But the division is so thin that “Rumble” would earn his spot against Jones if he pulls off the upset against the former title challenger.
But you have to wonder what happens after that. Jones sticking around to face his old foes would get tiresome, and maybe even pointless. Some are under the impression that “Bones” should move to heavyweight after his next fight, which would be the right call. If Jones was announced to face Cain Velasquez in four months from now, I’ll go out on a limb and say not only could he win the heavyweight title, he could even be favored. It’s all speculation at this point, yet this athlete is just too special, being 27 years old and already beating the division’s most dangerous fighters. We can say that he may not have even entered his prime yet, but we can also agree he’s wiped out everyone he’s had to in order to be called the greatest, with not much else to prove.
Apart from a lackluster PPV card, UFC 182’s main event was the perfect way to start off 2015, even though problems will continue to persist, like domestic abuse cases being thrown out the window, drug testing woes, odd MMA debuts, PPV price increases and the other nonsense we have to put up with. Apart from the cool Fight Pass library news, some other stuff has been getting us mildly intrigued, like Bellator in it to win it, Brock Lesnar’s rumored return, and the potential superfight involving Ariel Helwani vs. Front Row Brian at Cowboys Stadium (now the AT&T Stadium), stemming from their continued fight announcement rivalry.
Let’s not hold our hopes high for a groundbreaking year. We’re just praying it’s better than the last.
Helwani, however, appeared to have no choice but to speak to the UFC President, so he brought along a colleague as he did not feel comfortable going in alone:
Helwani was reluctant to reveal just what was ‘all said’ during his exchange with White, however, he did express his admiration for the UFC’s President:
A UFC PR spokesman then told Helwani that he should have had the ‘professional courtesy’ to run the news by them first:
The group was escorted from the arena all the way to their vehicles in the parking lot, making Helwani feel like he was ‘being watched like a dog’: