Big news is surrounding MMA journalist Ariel Helwani after he revealed on Saturday that he was “banned for life” from the UFC.
Helwani spoke on “The MMA Hour” on Monday to address the fiasco and his meeting with UFC President Dana White where he was kicked out of the UFC 199 event and banned as a journalist after breaking the news of Brock Lesnar’s return to the Octagon ahead of the organization’s announcement.
Helwani also mentioned on the show that things had gotten “physical” with the UFC while trying to do his job as a journalist.
“In the words of my man CM Punk, this is a pipebomb,” Helwani said of his incident “Around that timeframe something else happened. That’s the one thing I’m going to skip over, for now. That’s the one thing I don’t want to get into. I don’t feel comfortable. I will say this, though. It got physical and I’ll move along. And that was hard. But, I kept doing my job and I’m proud of my job and once again I was left on the island and I hoped that better days were ahead.
“And you can believe I’ve asked myself multiple times like, ‘why am I doing this? What’s the point? Why am I doing this to myself?’
“I see these other people covering the NBA and yeah those interviews are boring and those stories are boring, but they don’t have to go through this. This is not worth it. This is not why I signed up for journalism school. They never told me about this.”
Helwani did not give details of the physical incident. However, fellow journalists and MMA insiders have opened up on the matter.
FloSports Jeremy Botter tweeted, “Ariel came closer to addressing the physical confrontation he had with a UFC person back at UFC 172 than I ever thought he would.”
Ariel came closer to addressing the physical confrontation he had with a UFC person back at UFC 172 than I ever thought he would.
— Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) June 6, 2016
Botter also retweeted MMA Insider @FrontRowBrian’s alleged details of the incident saying, “Ariel asked Chuck Liddell if he would fight Jon Jones. UFC security pushed him against a wall and choked him. UFC 172 weekend. Jones Glover.” A following tweet said, “The person that roughed up Ariel is allegedly one of the bodyguards for Dana. Thrown against a wall and choked.”
Ariel asked Chuck Liddell if he would fight Jon Jones. UFC security pushed him against a wall and choked him. UFC 172 weekend. Jones Glover
— FrontRowBrian (@FrontRowBrian) June 6, 2016
The person that roughed up Ariel is allegedly one of the bodyguards for Dana. Thrown against a wall and choked.
— FrontRowBrian (@FrontRowBrian) June 6, 2016
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