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The Ariel Helwani Dramedy of Errors/Saga of Sympathy Thread


hammerva

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According to Helwani's twitter, Dana had one hell of an immature fit about this.  He and a few people were kicked out of the PPV and their credentials taken away  

Imagine a couple months ago he was basically the UFC's lap dog now he seems to be blacklisted until Dana settles down which for him could be never

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I don't think Helwani was ever the UFC's lapdog. He always covered fighting outside the UFC. However, his job at Fox made him the go-to guy for them. It's basically the job Josh Gross turned down years ago.

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Helwani was never a lapdog.  

I will say, I didn't catch exactly what happened but the night of Condit vs. Diaz, I did see a UFC pr rep give him a talking to in the back after he got some words in with Condit.  It was about five years ago but I'm going by memory.  But he was stopped and got a dressing down I think as he grabbed Condit for an interview I think after the press conference when he was heading toward the back.  He was conciliatory and apologizing over what happened.  Still don't know the whole story there.

The only justification I think for Helwani and the other reporters getting banned is if they had privileged or embargoed information and they violated embargo.

Some press outlets violate embargoes on reviews.  I guess it's technically not illegal.  But they do it and never get punished for it.  It's a little annoying.  I always honor my embargoes.  

The fact of the matter is this.  Freedom of the press does not guarantee you getting credentials and free reign to attend all these events.  Studios don't have to let you go to early screenings or press junkets.  

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1 hour ago, TheVileOne said:

Helwani was never a lapdog.  

I will say, I didn't catch exactly what happened but the night of Condit vs. Diaz, I did see a UFC pr rep give him a talking to in the back after he got some words in with Condit.  It was about five years ago but I'm going by memory.  But he was stopped and got a dressing down I think as he grabbed Condit for an interview I think after the press conference when he was heading toward the back.  He was conciliatory and apologizing over what happened.  Still don't know the whole story there.

The only justification I think for Helwani and the other reporters getting banned is if they had privileged or embargoed information and they violated embargo.

Some press outlets violate embargoes on reviews.  I guess it's technically not illegal.  But they do it and never get punished for it.  It's a little annoying.  I always honor my embargoes.  

The fact of the matter is this.  Freedom of the press does not guarantee you getting credentials and free reign to attend all these events.  Studios don't have to let you go to early screenings or press junkets.  

I think sports is a little bit different than films and television in that other people, outside the realm of media, can produce similar news and content. Even if Helwani signs a piece of paper, what's stopping someone else from breaking that news who has loose connections with personnel or former UFC personnel?

I think what happened here is that someone up high got upset that Helwani was breaking the news before UFC Tonight after he got fired from Fox, and they are going out of their way to show him that they will have the last laugh. He was basically trying to fact check the stuff on the show (ex. Lawler-Woodley being finalized, whether or not Cyborg vs. GdR was actually happening, and other stuff) as well as other news being broke. I think the Lesnar thing was the last straw. I had a feeling the hammer was going to come down soon.

I will say he was a bit cocky in some his tweets before hand (using the nose emoji and the like). Now whether you need to ban someone for being a bit of a dick, I dunno if I can justify that. I can see Fox being upset at that because it is stepping on a piece of their programming. I mean ESPN doesn't give a shit because they run SportsCenter all day and whatnot. Dana White revealing who is fighting who is important (moreso for the UFC), but not in the grand scheme of what that show is. However, if you're talking about shoulder programming on a young channel that needs those ratings, I can see Fox being a bit vengeful. Whether they pressured the UFC to pull the trigger, we'll just have to find out.

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I mean it's hard to believe this was Fox's call, considering the UFC has sort of done this to reporters in the past.  Not saying it was necessarily unjustified from their perspective.  But they have pulled credentials from a bunch of reporters before over stories or leaks.  Loretta Hunt.  Josh Gross.  Jeff Sherwood.  To name a few.

By the fact checking thing, are you saying the real reason Helwani was fired by from the Fox gig because he was exploiting his cushy gig at Fox to get scoops for MMA Fighting?  That I hadn't heard before.  

However, what I would say is that you can't be the analyst for FS1 and the insider scoop reporter.  It's definitely a conflict of interest.  I would say FOX and Helwani were both at fault for not seeing that.

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54 minutes ago, TheVileOne said:

I mean it's hard to believe this was Fox's call, considering the UFC has sort of done this to reporters in the past.  Not saying it was necessarily unjustified from their perspective.  But they have pulled credentials from a bunch of reporters before over stories or leaks.  Loretta Hunt.  Josh Gross.  Jeff Sherwood.  To name a few.

By the fact checking thing, are you saying the real reason Helwani was fired by from the Fox gig because he was exploiting his cushy gig at Fox to get scoops for MMA Fighting?  That I hadn't heard before.  

However, what I would say is that you can't be the analyst for FS1 and the insider scoop reporter.  It's definitely a conflict of interest.  I would say FOX and Helwani were both at fault for not seeing that.

I mean look at who you listed though. When was that TUF that Gross spoiled the results of? That was like 20 seasons ago almost. Sherdog would eventually get some credentials back IIRC. This was clearly the result of something that was long stemming, IMO. The Lesnar fight is big, but it's like third from the top on the card. They went like five hours so that news was going to come out before they did the shock surprise on the UFC 200 hype video. Okamoto asked Dana about that earlier this week and there were people there in the Forum who knew other than Helwani. Whether or not Helwani violated an agreement and opened up the floodgates for others to talk, that would be interesting to find out and look at. However, it is apparent that he wasn't in the best graces of the company as well as his former employer Fox.

I don't think it is just getting scoops for MMA Fighting. He clearly wanted to establish that he had sources independent of the UFC and wasn't being fed information. Moreover, from his tweets in the weeks since Fox fired him, he has gone out of his way to make it look like Megan Olivi and Karyn Bryant are the ones being fed info and incompetent. Now, I don't know either woman although Bryant has never come off like a beacon for MMA journalism. Also, I get that Helwani is mad that Fox fired him and UFC may have had some input in that. However, that's still a bit of a dick move. Especially when you're acting like a watchdog and going over whether one fact on the show is incorrect or not. I mean we hear about UFC fights all the time that may be in talks or close to finalized. Honestly, whether it's 70 percent done, 80 percent done, or a single signature away, MMA fans don't really give a shit as long as the company is working towards that. In addition, when Helwani was on that show, no one sat back on Twitter and did that to him. I am not saying ban him for life or take away his credentials, but for someone who still relies on access to people during fight week, they've found at least one way to teach him a lesson.

Whether it is a conflict of interest, I don't know. He wasn't working for the UFC. You can argue that it could interrupt or cause him to alter his coverage working for Fox, but they weren't preventing others from getting news. Helwani isn't the sole MMA news provider. You got Iole, Morgan, Botter, Okamoto, Meltzer, Savage, and several others. A real conflict of interest is something like the WWE being covered by ESPN, with the true intention of just being a platform to promote WWE and not cover actual, real things tied into that. That's a true conflict of interest.

 

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1 hour ago, muhammedboehm said:

Not sure if this goes here or the non event page but Ariel Helwin is reporting that Zuff/UFC kicked him out and took his credentials for 'braking' the Brock news. 

Not important news to me. Ariel always had controversy. 

As for the Ufc, they don't give a f as you can see with the Conor McGregor situation. They do what they like.

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1 hour ago, Shawn411 said:

Not important news to me. Ariel always had controversy. 

As for the Ufc, they don't give a f as you can see with the Conor McGregor situation. They do what they like.

It IS important news. They essentially banned a reporter for doing his job. This is an absolute embarrassment for UFC. They want to be taken seriously and pull stuff like this, can you imagine the shitstorm that would take place if say the NBA did something like this?

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7 minutes ago, sabremike said:

It IS important news. They essentially banned a reporter for doing his job. This is an absolute embarrassment for UFC. They want to be taken seriously and pull stuff like this, can you imagine the shitstorm that would take place if say the NBA did something like this?

People would get mad for a couple of days and then go back to watching the NBA.

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9 minutes ago, Charlie M. said:

Sports teams freeze reporters out all the time. No one ever really seems to care unfortunately.

Say the Golden State Warriors or Cavs did that during the regular season. Does that affect the absurd TV ratings they got in their local markets? I don't think it affects them one iota. The news cycle for the three big major sports in the US is vastly than different than MMA and boxing.

MMA is a much smaller community where people like Helwani can be more visible. As a result, getting his credentials pulled makes it that much more visible.

 

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A few mainstream press outlets are focusing more on Ariel getting "banned for life" for breaking this story more than Lesnar returning. The Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times....

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5 hours ago, Charlie M. said:

Sports teams freeze reporters out all the time. No one ever really seems to care unfortunately.

Newcastle United banned every newspaper except the Daily Mirror for a few weeks (including both Newcastle local papers, for several months). Both Stoke City and Port Vale have banned the Stoke Sentinel for a few weeks in recent years. In the Nigel Pearson era, Leicester were ban-happy. Leeds United banned the Guardian for asking who owned the team. Most big-name managers in the Premiership will have banned certain reporters, if not necessarily every reporter for any given publication.

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16 hours ago, Casey said:

A few mainstream press outlets are focusing more on Ariel getting "banned for life" for breaking this story more than Lesnar returning. The Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times....

Iole's piece on Yahoo Sports is pretty funny.  

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the fact that Helwani is getting more press coverage for being kicked out (which is perfectly within UFC's rights) than any number of the amazing things that came out of UFC 199 is atrocious. Bisping's title win was tremendous. Dominick Cruz again avenges his lone loss and shows why he's the undisputed champ. the Brock Lesnar announcement. a potential Dan Henderson retirement. the Conor-Diaz rematch officially happening. Max Holloway (#4 FW) utterly demolishing the #5 FW, getting his 9th consecutive win, and having now beaten the current #5-6-7 and #8 fighters in his last 4 fights.  and an all-time great sloppy slugfest in the Fight Pass Prelims.

This was one of, if not THE, best top-to-bottom nights of fights of all time. And all anybody cares about is some douchebag reporter.

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Ariel thing will last a few days maybe will disappear by tomorrow once the media stop calling him. UFC will continue business as usual. This is the Conor situation all over again but on a smaller scale.

Now back to Brock vs. Hunt, this should be a fun one.

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Is anyone else watching Ariel right now? This is some eye-opening shit. I have to think that Dana is going to isolate some random comment during this tell-all and will sue over it.

I feel really bad for Ariel.

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Is it just me, or does it seem like he's having a hard time keeping it together? I keep thinking I am hearing his voice crack and waver like right before emotion shuts your body down and takes over. I'm a little behind, I keep having to pause it to take phone calls at my desk.

My heart is breaking for this guy.

EDIT - Oh man, he just broke down. I want to give him a hug.

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