Earlier this month, at UFC 199, MMA's most prominent journalist - Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting.com - was escorted from The Forum in Inglewood California before the main event, a middleweight title bout between Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping.
Despite the result being a major upset - Bisping KO'd the then champion Rockhold in the first round - the story which dominated for many the following day was Helwani being ostracised by the UFC.
From a PR perspective, it a huge mistake by the UFC. Both fans and media were on Helwani's side of the argument. The UFC's reason for ejecting him from the venue ,and issuing what was called a 'lifetime ban' from events, was his breaking of the news that Brock Lesnar would be returning to MMA for one more fight at the landmark UFC 200 event on July 9th.
It did not take long for the UFC to realise its PR blunder. Days later the lifetime ban for employees of MMAFighting.com was rescinded.
Nearly two weeks after that decision, Dana White has spoken regarding Helwani and the events of those few days.
The UFC president was speaking on the promotion's new 'Unfiltered' podcast with Jim Norton and Matt Serra.
White accused Helwani of 'stealing' from the fans by preempting the thunder of the UFC's Brock Lesnar announcement.
This whole Ariel Helwani thing. It's about 'What can I sneak and get out and steal from the fans?' [Stealing] The excitement and enjoyment of the fans seeing it when it comes out, instead of doing some real journalism.
It's not even about controlling the narrative. There's so much more to that thing than was represented. I know he threw a big pity party for himself and all that shit. But there was a lot more to it. A lot more people were involved in that thing and it almost blew up a huge relationship that I wouldn't even get into publicly. That's why we just came out with a statement.
It was dirty, he knows it was dirty and he threw a big pity-party for himself [makes crying noises]. Crying on-camera and shit. It's fuckin'... just ridiculous. It is what it is. None of that shit is going to change. Ariel Helwani knows. I've done a lot of shit for Ariel Helwani. A lot of shit for Ariel Helwani. Whatever man.
The 'pity-party' of which White accuses Helwani of throwing was his addressing of the ban on his MMA Hour show. Helwani's emotions were obvious during that broadcast. It was an episode of which White felt Helwani should be ashamed, 'your kids are going to see that for Christ's sake' - a pretty low comment from the UFC president. Even the two hosts, who earlier had sounded more than a little sycophantic around White, were somewhat taken aback.
Though Helwani is no longer banned from UFC events, White said the journalist is by no means back in his good graces. He charged Helwani with making things about him rather than the sport.
We built that promo and a lot of people were quiet about it and it was for the fans. That thing is for the fans, for that, 'Wow' factor to be there and go, 'Oh, wow. Brock's back!' And the way that he did it had a lot of people pointing fingers at each other. You notice I wasn't out there putting the belt on Dominick Cruz, then when I ran out there to put the belt on Bisping, because I've been with Bisping for 10 years. He's such a great guy. My sleeves are rolled up and I've got not jacket on because I'm dealing with aftermath of the weasel move that he pulled. People can call it journalism or whatever and we can have our difference of opinion on that, but he knows what he did and he did it on purpose.
Then he goes on his fucking thing and he's crying and shit. Dude, your kids are going to see that for Christ's sakes, you know what I mean? Give me a fucking break.
The bottom line is this: It was all about Ariel. Journalism is supposed to be — when you're a guy that covers the sport it's about the sport. What we did, that spot and everything, it was for the fans. A lot of good people worked hard to pull that thing off and to make that thing happen and to try to keep it a secret, including the WWE. A lot of things were set in place. They graciously let us have Brock Lesnar and a lot of things were set in place to be done. It left a lot of people pointing the finger at each other. Almost blew up a relationship and created a lot of bad blood behind the scenes and he didn't care. It was all about him and then even after it was over it was Al about him and his big world tour pity party that he threw for himself. Then he goes on crying on his show and shit. I don't know.
Nobody else does that. When you're a real journalist you reach out and you say, 'Hey, this is the rumor, this is going on and everything else and I'm going to run with it.' That's what the real journalists do. He's a website guy, you know what I mean? It's just a totally different world now. There's still a lot of real journalists out there that when they do something they reach out and show that respect and have that relationship, whereas he's not that guy. A lot of people support him and good for you and all that stuff, but a lot of people have turned on him too.
Helwani certainly is not on White's Christmas card list at the moment and it's likely he never will be again. The information regarding Lesnar's comeback being leaked to Helwani has also changed how the UFC will handle such major announcements in the future.
I don't know (if it can be fixed). I'm not not that guy. When you go that way with me I'm hard to get back. A lot of people didn't know [that Brock Lesnar was fighting at UFC 200] and when the loop is that small and you get all these different people involved, when that happened a lot of people were pointing the fingers at each other. Something like that can really hurt people and hurt the sport. But it's all about him. It's all about him at the end of the day. You saw that with that and after that, that it's just about him.
You better fucking believe (it's going to change how we do things). You better believe it. He almost destroyed a relationship 15 years in the making and a lot of other relationships.
You can listen below from the 47:06 mark.
