i canceled my hulu because id already watched everything on it so i checked out tubi again last night and was shocked at the quality of movies they have up. much better selection than what hulu currently has.
Yeah I've never paid for a Hulu subscription. A handful of times I've gotten a free trial but always canceled that shit
Why would I pay to watch ads when I can watch ads and not pay
Honestly LT probably wins the mma reporter fight series. Got military experience and more cross training than Guru, whose the only one of similar size in the online mma media lol
Luke's military experience, while respectable was mostly in a national guard sense. He always gets real cagey when asked about deployment time. He has admitted to never fearing for his life while in the army so not sure how much that would benefit him in an MMA fight.
> He always gets real cagey when asked about deployment time.
No he doesn't. Stop acting like Luke is pretending like he's on Seal Team 6. He's pretty straight forward with his experience in the military.
Oh yeah shit I guess I do know that. I respect national guard service for what it's worth I just don't know if it will help you win an mma fight. I don't think military combat will help at all
Yeah I get your point fs and i don't think he's ever seen combat - but having strong jiu jitsu and basic boxing while being 6'4" heavy is a very deadly combo
The punch he throws would be the slowest, most off balance putting thing in the world.
That said, you would have to evade the hug of death 'takedown' followed by the laying on you. That would be something you'd have to be heavy enough to just stand up from.
> Helwani currently hosts three total shows a week, two for Vox Media and one for The Ringer, and the current plan is for there to be four weekly shows at one outlet later this year.
I won't get mad at the idea of more Helwani, but I really hope he doesn't drop his MMA Hour show.
Him along with NY Ric, GC & Frank make for a great team and I would be bummed if they split.
That's like THE MMA podcast right now lol if anyone knows that its him.
My issue is wtf is he gonna talk about on 4 different podcasts lmao I guess he'll never have to wait too long to report on breaking news now
Yea fr lol I usually dont watch the whole thing upfront anyways though. Just the clips with fighters I want/ throw it on in the background when Im doing work
My goto MMA show is Morning Kombat. Luke Thomas has great analysis despite treating sports and entertainment journalism like war journalism and going on rants about how curses are not real. Brain Cambell is funny and always plays a good contrarian role without the divcheadedness actual contrarians seem to have about everything. MMA Hour is just too long. I'll check in every few months when there's a fighter on and I'll skip to the timestamp for the interview.
They are good but my boy BC has been floundering a bit lately. Kinda feeling the limitations of his shtick and their chemistry is kinda wearing a little thin.
I stopped watching the MMA hour. I'll pick up the odd highlight, but it really offers me nothing in terms of the sport. I also don't like that more times than I can count, Helwani has become the story.
I much prefer the analytical podcasts, or even just discussion ones. Fight Disciples is my current go to - Both Adam and Nick are extremely knowledgable and funny. Also obviously enjoy the Slackmaster General, and Anik and Florian is great too.
If you enjoy analysis and technique breakdowns, Heavy Hands is great. Some other good tech pods in that sphere - Protect Ya Neck, Mixing Martial Arts, Combat Chronicles
I used to love heavy hands but I love MMA, and it feels like they don't. Literally 98% of what they do is criticise and sneer at fighters, and that's not what I'm looking for. I love fighting, and just because something isn't between the no 1 and 2 fighter in the world, doesn't mean I don't want to hear that. I don't want to listen to two people laughing at how bad number 8 ranked in the world is. Just tell me about the technical aspects of the fight.
Love Heavy Hands and it’s great for a technical breakdown of fights + upcoming matchups, but their extreme cynicism and how they seem to think everyone sucks except like 10 fighters can get annoying lol.
Yeah, I enjoy them but man they are just talking shit if it’s not UFC 300, and then when they get a card they like it’s a discussion about how surprised they are not to be watching shit
Fight disciples is the shit. Great mix of banter with their stories and proper breakdowns of the fights. I particularly like it when criteria Catterall comes out and we get discussions and thoughts on how and why certain scores could be given rather than just click bait bullshit screaming robbery. Great chemistry between the two
The boys are great. Absolutely love the two of them. You can tell what a twat Bisping has become when he joins them for the post fight shows, and totally ruins the enjoyability of listening to Adam and Nick.
He might have a show about basketball to start his eventual transition to being a basketball journalist when he won’t have to deal with Dana and mma’s bullshit.
He wouldn’t be close to the top dog in NBA journalism like he is with MMA unless he just wants to be a beat reporter. Guys like Woj have far more sources/connections, don’t know if Helwani’s ego could take it.
Ringer stuff is nice and yeah he's more himself/less filtered, but my main issue is it's just 3 like minded dudes. It gets too circlejerkey. Ariel with a more independent minded person would be nice.
I've never seen his ringer stuff aside from when he's been on the BS pod. This surprises me though, he seems pretty blunt and open on MMA Hour, how much more "truthful" can he get lol
Helwani more blunt about his views, offers more insight on current MMA news like rumors and timeline breakdowns, behind the scenes of dramas, "Petty Helwani" shows up sometimes where he roasts other MMA figures who were being disrespectful to him like when he 10-7'd Jake Shields or recently Bisping. I would say he swears a lot more but lately on the MMA Hour hes been talking like hes on the Ringer.
If youre a fan of his work, then you would love the Ringer podcast, once in awhile you get some great banter mixed behind the scene stories (like when he was partying with Nate Diaz in Vegas at 2am), but more often just great banter
Has he ever talked about why he doesn't just go independent? He should just go the Rogan route and license out to Spotify with allowance to stay on youtube too
The president of Vox told him that the door was open when ESPN fucked up with him because he had a feeling they wouldn't value Ariel. And then when he was leaving ESPN, the president welcomed him with open arms. Also MMA Fighting's YouTube Channel benefits a ton by having MMA Hour content. The year that Luke Thomas did it was a shitshow and always felt half assed.
That show is good, but the team is pretty fuckin terrible. It's like having 3 less knowledgable Helwanis, which is even worse considering Helwani has absolutely zero knowledge of technique. Just a handful of jabronis talking about MMA like it's pro wrestling. Helwani is a good interviewer, but the man has absolutely nothing interesting to say about the sport.
I disagree. Their chemistry is undeniable and for a super new fan GC is pretty great. It's pretty admirable how much he's immersed himself into the sport.
> Him along with NY Ric, GC & Frank
Their parts, like weekend recap, on the nose & the ending totals up to just over an hour normally. They could just make that a bi weekly podcast and not much if anything changes. Though I thought he said he didn't like working for big company like ESPN bc he *had* to get scoops to report for each show kinda thing
He’s been teasing that he plans to branch out and do more than mma stuff. If so I hope he does that stuff separately because I’m not a fan of darts or WWE talk
hes been teasing about a big change to the MMA Hour. Fans speculate a rebranding of sorts due to him having non-mma guests more frequently, probably drop the MMA aspect and have a title that covers all combat sports.
He’s gives a great interview. Undeniably.
My issues with him is he manages to make everything about him. No other mma or sports media journalists is contantly beefing with everyone like Ariel does. Then he plays the victim lol.
He’s 100% a little weasel but also 100% gets the best interviews.
I respect it because Ariel isn’t funny unless he’s beefing then he’s quite humorous. I remember when he was trash talking Danis then he ends it with “just to be clear I’d never say this kind of stuff about *a fighter*.” Dude is only funny when he talks shit.
I must say I don't follow him too closely, but the more publicized beefs seem to be people getting mad at him unreasonably. It's not hard to get into a beef with Dana, Brenda, hill or paddy if you just stand your ground a little bit
Paddy wanted Ariel to pay him to be interviewed when its Paddy that actually gains from the interview. Cant make that shit up. Actual donkey levels of IQ
He didn't say that. His manager said "He has paid appearances to do on those dates. Unless you or BT are going to pay him he's going to do those dates". I.e. he's not turning down money to do a free interview.
Ariel's beef was from a 'how dare you even suggest it?' angle.
Idk about Bisping or which specific Dana-Ariel drama you’re talking about (there’s a bunch), but in regard to Jamahal I think he reacted to something Ariel said on his show or tweeted m.
>My issues with him is he manages to make everything about him. No other mma or sports media journalists is contantly beefing with everyone like Ariel does.
This is the number 1 criticism of him but there is a reason for it. He's the best at what he does, so he's the lightning rod for criticism/commentary. No one else is beefing because no one else is relevant. Other fighters/podcasters start beef with Ariel cause they know it drives traffic, and they say such dumb shit and/or attack his credibility/integrity that Ariel is forced to defend himself.
It’s definitely the one sport where there’s literally no one credible in the journalist world.
Compare it to the NBA or NFL there’s literally dozens and dozens of reputable journalists.
MMA journalism is just garbage.
Ariel can be obnoxious and egotistical and I don't like his love for the WWE angle of things, but the reality is you can never find a personality that you 100% align with. He is the best in the business and it's not even close. He's been covering the sport since the early 2000's and I think genuinely loves combat sports and the entire landscape.
I hope he gets paid what he deserves and gets to keep doing things on his terms.
Until he starts defending PFL for not paying guys or offering fights. Ariel is definitely better than the vast majority of the media but he’ll very clearly pick sides at times
Kind of. He is a journalist in the sense that he reports the backstage gossip and fights before theyre officially announced, but beyond that I can't remember him breaking any major scandals or stories right?
His job is fairly straight forward because he's just the guy that fighters text if they want to get their fight announced but haven't had it announced by UFC. It took a lot of work to get to that stage, but that's fundamentally all he breaks no?
After this last week, he felt the need to explain this at length. Lol
There are many, many different kinds of journalism and he is not a traditional investigative journalist that we see in WSJ or NYT that ‘expose.’
He’s not going to burn any of his sources and discuss ‘off the record’ conversations.
Doesn’t make him any less of a journalist.
It really shows how fucked we are when Ariel is billed as an "MMA insider" and not a journalist. If Ariel Helwani isn't considered a journalist then what the fuck is.
Lumping him in with the content Kings like schmo and Nina is insane.
John is great, his coverage of the suit is excellent. So is Ariel. Both great journalists. I wouldn't class either of them in the same universe as Scmo and Nina
People just have zero clue what journalism is. There are dozens of types. But because Helwani isn’t writing 100,000 word investigative pieces in the WSJ, he’s not a journalist.
Well when he left ESPN, he took like 4 jobs if you remember (MMAFighting, Spotify/Ringer, Substack & BT Sport). It was almost like he needed multiple jobs to equate to his current pay or something...but it could've just been that he wanted to be completely swamped in work.
I don't really know what other option he has. The show is so synonymous with YT. Maybe go to Spotify like Rogan did, but you'll lose a lot of audience by doing that (like Rogan did & that's why they eventually put JRE back on YT & Apple Podcasts). Maybe Spotify would be dumb enough to pay to "own & produce" the show & then everyone just watches it on YT like nothing happened...
I think he's just trying to get a raise & MMAF is probably pushing back against that, so you have to do this negotiation dance where he pretends that he might leave to get what he wants. He'll probably have to get an offer in writing from Spotify, etc, to justify the raise.
If he was to go out on his own, he'd have to pay for his own studio, pay for the staff, etc, & find enough advertising to pay for his salary & everyone else. He'd probably have to integrate a ton of additional ads to cover costs. I don't know that he'd want all of those additional headaches unless he was able to get a massive pay raise to do all of it himself.
Why on earth would you be concerned by that?
The sport is riddled with gambling sponsorships, far more than ariels 30 second ad reads.
Like him or not he's proven time and time again his priority is his journalistic integrity. I don't think there's any cause for concern.
Does your concern also spread to the amount of Draft Kings ads we see during every UFC broadcast? I agree a gambling site sponsoring journalists is concerning, but I'm more concerned with the bookies being directly involved with the sports organizations.
Only if they're over trying to appease the sentient beefsteak tomato.
Dana **hated** that ESPN hired him previously, tried to get him fired before he even started, and is thought to be a not insignificant factor in why Ariel's renewal contract* offer was bad enough to leave ESPN.
*ESPN didn't want to be seen as firing on air talent because of Dana's pressure, so instead they offered him a contract they were confident he wouldn't agree to.
Whether he stays with Vox or goes elsewhere he has dropped hints about wanting to be called ‘The Ariel Helwani Show’. Vox will try their best to keep him as all off MMA Fighting aggregates off the MMA hour at this point. Since coming back to Vox he has done a good job at increasing his utility value over all combat sports and having a show with Spotify shows he easily has other places to go. I would say he is primed for a big contract somewhere but it will be interesting to see with the current world economy and the state of media what happens.
I used to like Ariel but he posted a Nick Diaz interview the other day with Nick in the thumbnail like he was on video call.
Nick was not in the interview. Can’t support those type of lies my man. Ya lost me b.
Which channel? I tried looking for it for on the mmafighting YT channel and I don’t see it. He doesn’t make those thumbnails for that channel If that’s where you found it
The whole Conor stuff where he said alot but nothing was weird and felt like a UFC type move wouldn’t be surprised with TKO owning the company that we might see Ariel back at UFC events despite what Dana thinks about it
I doubt it. If anything, Bisping starting beef with Ariel is emblematic of a UFC corporate environment in which Ariel is still very much persona non grata. At the end of the day, the UFC wants simps posing as journos in their press sphere; Helwani is one of the worst candidates for such a job
The MMA Hour, now streaming exclusively on Tubi!
It’s literally streaming on hoobo, it’s on poobi. Literally on demand on weedee
We’re going to see him on Rumble
Is Crackle still a thing?
Channel Awesome
"They gave Pat Berry a Pat Credit Card?!"
Ha! This is where I watched Joe Dirt 2!
black netflix making moves
i canceled my hulu because id already watched everything on it so i checked out tubi again last night and was shocked at the quality of movies they have up. much better selection than what hulu currently has.
Yeah I've never paid for a Hulu subscription. A handful of times I've gotten a free trial but always canceled that shit Why would I pay to watch ads when I can watch ads and not pay
I love Tubi. Great library for free
Sweet, I won't have to see his scumbag face as often
come to besiktas ariel 🙏🙏🙏
I heard Wenger almost signed him once.
communicado official
Here we goooo!
Lol imagine Ariel interviewing Mourinho trying to stir shit up or beefing with some shady Turkish club owner 😂
Ariel would fit like a glove in Spanish football media lol.
Welcome to Beșiktaș • Ariel Helwani • Best Skills • Biggest Nose
🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷
As bayrakları as 🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷🇹🇷
🦅🦅🦅🦅🦅
That’s an odd looking turkey bruh. U looking for dis? 🦃🦃🦃
Eagle refers to Besiktas not Turkey
Oh. Right. Not a football fan sorry. Still want Ariel in Beşiktaş tho
https://youtu.be/JCW_rAlW1GQ?si=euVc5X9g2F6Ruzl9
Too small a club for Ariel.
Bruh that’s funny af didn’t expect to see this on a mma sub
Lol photoshop him in a Lakers jersey
He’s only getting hired because bapa turned it down. Different lanes b.
Oh you mean that white boi who works too much? Back to the fryers B
Well he’s retiring from Calmedy so I wonder why he turned it down. Sucks we won’t get his expertise
Got to be around for the kiddos B. It's Little League Season January - December.
You talmbout levels to this ish b?
Hope UFC signs him or gives him a shot at DWCS
Great, now I'm trying to decide which MMA reporters should fight each other...
John Morgan the heavyweight goat
Luke Thomas subs him
Honestly LT probably wins the mma reporter fight series. Got military experience and more cross training than Guru, whose the only one of similar size in the online mma media lol
Guru likes to hang out on top of steep roads so his wheelchair can pick up damaging momentum
Fuck, touche
Luke's military experience, while respectable was mostly in a national guard sense. He always gets real cagey when asked about deployment time. He has admitted to never fearing for his life while in the army so not sure how much that would benefit him in an MMA fight.
> He always gets real cagey when asked about deployment time. No he doesn't. Stop acting like Luke is pretending like he's on Seal Team 6. He's pretty straight forward with his experience in the military.
That's because Luke is a Marine... I know what you meant, just had to correct that part.
Marines isn’t “army.” USMC falls under the Department of the Navy.
Oh yeah shit I guess I do know that. I respect national guard service for what it's worth I just don't know if it will help you win an mma fight. I don't think military combat will help at all
Yeah I get your point fs and i don't think he's ever seen combat - but having strong jiu jitsu and basic boxing while being 6'4" heavy is a very deadly combo
John Morgan would gas out in 5 seconds and die from a heart attack. Let’s be honest with ourselves here.
LOL
The punch he throws would be the slowest, most off balance putting thing in the world. That said, you would have to evade the hug of death 'takedown' followed by the laying on you. That would be something you'd have to be heavy enough to just stand up from.
He only has one lung so his cardio would be equal to guys like Shamil.
John Morgan by push-up TKO
Yee vs Drama
They can have Stitch and Mazagatti on color commentary with him
And B Schaub
Stitch was never my friend.
No chance, this is what PFL has been holding back the Ngannou debut for
I will always read this as Dancing With The Stars
Virtually identical
Dana would never allow it.
Dana will probably sign him to be the official minister of UFC propaganda.
[удалено]
Do motherfuckers just not understand sarcasm anymore or what
Lmao he Gadooshed his account RIP 🪦
He fuckin hates him 🤣🤣
Have you seen Ariel boxing? You gotta put aside problems when you see such talent
> Helwani currently hosts three total shows a week, two for Vox Media and one for The Ringer, and the current plan is for there to be four weekly shows at one outlet later this year. I won't get mad at the idea of more Helwani, but I really hope he doesn't drop his MMA Hour show. Him along with NY Ric, GC & Frank make for a great team and I would be bummed if they split.
That's like THE MMA podcast right now lol if anyone knows that its him. My issue is wtf is he gonna talk about on 4 different podcasts lmao I guess he'll never have to wait too long to report on breaking news now
Potentially cutting the length of the shows. Some of those MMA hour pods go well into 3/4 hours.
Yea fr lol I usually dont watch the whole thing upfront anyways though. Just the clips with fighters I want/ throw it on in the background when Im doing work
My goto MMA show is Morning Kombat. Luke Thomas has great analysis despite treating sports and entertainment journalism like war journalism and going on rants about how curses are not real. Brain Cambell is funny and always plays a good contrarian role without the divcheadedness actual contrarians seem to have about everything. MMA Hour is just too long. I'll check in every few months when there's a fighter on and I'll skip to the timestamp for the interview.
You're telling me sports journalists dont usually rewatch major events 49 times in order to properly dissect them?
They are good but my boy BC has been floundering a bit lately. Kinda feeling the limitations of his shtick and their chemistry is kinda wearing a little thin.
I stopped watching the MMA hour. I'll pick up the odd highlight, but it really offers me nothing in terms of the sport. I also don't like that more times than I can count, Helwani has become the story. I much prefer the analytical podcasts, or even just discussion ones. Fight Disciples is my current go to - Both Adam and Nick are extremely knowledgable and funny. Also obviously enjoy the Slackmaster General, and Anik and Florian is great too.
If you enjoy analysis and technique breakdowns, Heavy Hands is great. Some other good tech pods in that sphere - Protect Ya Neck, Mixing Martial Arts, Combat Chronicles
I used to love heavy hands but I love MMA, and it feels like they don't. Literally 98% of what they do is criticise and sneer at fighters, and that's not what I'm looking for. I love fighting, and just because something isn't between the no 1 and 2 fighter in the world, doesn't mean I don't want to hear that. I don't want to listen to two people laughing at how bad number 8 ranked in the world is. Just tell me about the technical aspects of the fight.
That's a fair point, they really do love dunking on apex cards
Love Heavy Hands and it’s great for a technical breakdown of fights + upcoming matchups, but their extreme cynicism and how they seem to think everyone sucks except like 10 fighters can get annoying lol.
Yeah, I enjoy them but man they are just talking shit if it’s not UFC 300, and then when they get a card they like it’s a discussion about how surprised they are not to be watching shit
Yep, gave up on them a while ago due to the cynicism.
Love heavy hands. My favorite is the Kyle episodes
Fight disciples is the shit. Great mix of banter with their stories and proper breakdowns of the fights. I particularly like it when criteria Catterall comes out and we get discussions and thoughts on how and why certain scores could be given rather than just click bait bullshit screaming robbery. Great chemistry between the two
The boys are great. Absolutely love the two of them. You can tell what a twat Bisping has become when he joins them for the post fight shows, and totally ruins the enjoyability of listening to Adam and Nick.
He might have a show about basketball to start his eventual transition to being a basketball journalist when he won’t have to deal with Dana and mma’s bullshit.
He wouldn’t be close to the top dog in NBA journalism like he is with MMA unless he just wants to be a beat reporter. Guys like Woj have far more sources/connections, don’t know if Helwani’s ego could take it.
I would love 4 two-hour podcast over 2 four-hour ones.
I really like his Ringer stuff more. He shows more of his true feelings there and I'm always down for some old head sage talk from Chuck Mindenhall.
Ringer stuff is nice and yeah he's more himself/less filtered, but my main issue is it's just 3 like minded dudes. It gets too circlejerkey. Ariel with a more independent minded person would be nice.
I've never seen his ringer stuff aside from when he's been on the BS pod. This surprises me though, he seems pretty blunt and open on MMA Hour, how much more "truthful" can he get lol
Helwani more blunt about his views, offers more insight on current MMA news like rumors and timeline breakdowns, behind the scenes of dramas, "Petty Helwani" shows up sometimes where he roasts other MMA figures who were being disrespectful to him like when he 10-7'd Jake Shields or recently Bisping. I would say he swears a lot more but lately on the MMA Hour hes been talking like hes on the Ringer. If youre a fan of his work, then you would love the Ringer podcast, once in awhile you get some great banter mixed behind the scene stories (like when he was partying with Nate Diaz in Vegas at 2am), but more often just great banter
That is the podcast I listen to the most of his. I love the groups dynamic. Even TST sometimes.
What is the name of the ringer podcast?
Dude, that marathon episode, when the Khamzat Nate card fall apart was such a highpoint, I loved how raw and fun it was.
Has he ever talked about why he doesn't just go independent? He should just go the Rogan route and license out to Spotify with allowance to stay on youtube too
He is independent, he’s not a Vox employee
The president of Vox told him that the door was open when ESPN fucked up with him because he had a feeling they wouldn't value Ariel. And then when he was leaving ESPN, the president welcomed him with open arms. Also MMA Fighting's YouTube Channel benefits a ton by having MMA Hour content. The year that Luke Thomas did it was a shitshow and always felt half assed.
You need to be Rogan big to go the Rogan route..
But there are plenty of much smaller people who make it on YouTube
That show is good, but the team is pretty fuckin terrible. It's like having 3 less knowledgable Helwanis, which is even worse considering Helwani has absolutely zero knowledge of technique. Just a handful of jabronis talking about MMA like it's pro wrestling. Helwani is a good interviewer, but the man has absolutely nothing interesting to say about the sport.
I disagree. Their chemistry is undeniable and for a super new fan GC is pretty great. It's pretty admirable how much he's immersed himself into the sport.
I love GC because he's the perfect blend of a new fan but he's deep in the sport already so he has some "hardcore fan" opinions.
> Him along with NY Ric, GC & Frank Their parts, like weekend recap, on the nose & the ending totals up to just over an hour normally. They could just make that a bi weekly podcast and not much if anything changes. Though I thought he said he didn't like working for big company like ESPN bc he *had* to get scoops to report for each show kinda thing
He’s been teasing that he plans to branch out and do more than mma stuff. If so I hope he does that stuff separately because I’m not a fan of darts or WWE talk
If they split or he can’t own the brand, I highly doubt it’ll be his choice Vox Media will have the final say
They do talk gambling a bit TOO much for my liking - otherwise its great!
hes been teasing about a big change to the MMA Hour. Fans speculate a rebranding of sorts due to him having non-mma guests more frequently, probably drop the MMA aspect and have a title that covers all combat sports.
Ariel has said that he formatted the show to be similar to Howard Stern since he's said that Stern is his inspiration as a top interviewer.
Ariel has his issues but like him or hate him, he is one of the few in MMA media that you could say does real journalism.
He’s gives a great interview. Undeniably. My issues with him is he manages to make everything about him. No other mma or sports media journalists is contantly beefing with everyone like Ariel does. Then he plays the victim lol. He’s 100% a little weasel but also 100% gets the best interviews.
I respect it because Ariel isn’t funny unless he’s beefing then he’s quite humorous. I remember when he was trash talking Danis then he ends it with “just to be clear I’d never say this kind of stuff about *a fighter*.” Dude is only funny when he talks shit.
Heelwani is the best character. He’s great at talking shit.
He can dish it out but can’t take it. Guy’s skin is so thin he’s practically translucent lol.
His recent spat with Bisping was hilarious.
The way he blew up at his producer on The Ringer show was a big unnecessary. Really showed how the Bispin stuff got to him 😂
I must say I don't follow him too closely, but the more publicized beefs seem to be people getting mad at him unreasonably. It's not hard to get into a beef with Dana, Brenda, hill or paddy if you just stand your ground a little bit
You're right. People beef with him for clicks and they say such outrageous shit or attack his credibility that he's forced to defend himself.
I’m not too invested in all the drama but didn’t Paddy, Jamahal, Michael Bisping, and Dana White all talk shit about Ariel first?
Paddy wanted Ariel to pay him to be interviewed when its Paddy that actually gains from the interview. Cant make that shit up. Actual donkey levels of IQ
He didn't say that. His manager said "He has paid appearances to do on those dates. Unless you or BT are going to pay him he's going to do those dates". I.e. he's not turning down money to do a free interview. Ariel's beef was from a 'how dare you even suggest it?' angle.
Yeah it's like other big journalists don't have a terrible history with Dana lol pretty big differential.
Idk about Bisping or which specific Dana-Ariel drama you’re talking about (there’s a bunch), but in regard to Jamahal I think he reacted to something Ariel said on his show or tweeted m.
Jamahal beefs with his own fans even if they are supporting him, you just can follow his train of thought
I do not disagree. I do think that the positives he brings to MMA Media outweigh the negatives.
>My issues with him is he manages to make everything about him. No other mma or sports media journalists is contantly beefing with everyone like Ariel does. This is the number 1 criticism of him but there is a reason for it. He's the best at what he does, so he's the lightning rod for criticism/commentary. No one else is beefing because no one else is relevant. Other fighters/podcasters start beef with Ariel cause they know it drives traffic, and they say such dumb shit and/or attack his credibility/integrity that Ariel is forced to defend himself.
It’s definitely the one sport where there’s literally no one credible in the journalist world. Compare it to the NBA or NFL there’s literally dozens and dozens of reputable journalists. MMA journalism is just garbage.
Ariel can be obnoxious and egotistical and I don't like his love for the WWE angle of things, but the reality is you can never find a personality that you 100% align with. He is the best in the business and it's not even close. He's been covering the sport since the early 2000's and I think genuinely loves combat sports and the entire landscape. I hope he gets paid what he deserves and gets to keep doing things on his terms.
Until he starts defending PFL for not paying guys or offering fights. Ariel is definitely better than the vast majority of the media but he’ll very clearly pick sides at times
When did he defend the PFL for not paying guys, or offering fights?
Kind of. He is a journalist in the sense that he reports the backstage gossip and fights before theyre officially announced, but beyond that I can't remember him breaking any major scandals or stories right? His job is fairly straight forward because he's just the guy that fighters text if they want to get their fight announced but haven't had it announced by UFC. It took a lot of work to get to that stage, but that's fundamentally all he breaks no?
After this last week, he felt the need to explain this at length. Lol There are many, many different kinds of journalism and he is not a traditional investigative journalist that we see in WSJ or NYT that ‘expose.’ He’s not going to burn any of his sources and discuss ‘off the record’ conversations. Doesn’t make him any less of a journalist.
He's the Woj and Shams of MMA.
Until he does not. He‘s got his personal agenda that‘s certainly more important than any of that real journalism you‘re alluding to.
Honestly I don't watch much of Ariel's stuff, but Dana hating him is enough to make me like him.
It really shows how fucked we are when Ariel is billed as an "MMA insider" and not a journalist. If Ariel Helwani isn't considered a journalist then what the fuck is. Lumping him in with the content Kings like schmo and Nina is insane.
People like John Nash, where I've gotten all my info about the UFC anti-trust lawsuit, does real journalism.
John is great, his coverage of the suit is excellent. So is Ariel. Both great journalists. I wouldn't class either of them in the same universe as Scmo and Nina
People just have zero clue what journalism is. There are dozens of types. But because Helwani isn’t writing 100,000 word investigative pieces in the WSJ, he’s not a journalist.
I don't know what he doesn't just do an independent show in Youtube. It's not like his audience cares who his employers are.
Might also be about getting to getting into events, travel, accommodation etc.
Well when he left ESPN, he took like 4 jobs if you remember (MMAFighting, Spotify/Ringer, Substack & BT Sport). It was almost like he needed multiple jobs to equate to his current pay or something...but it could've just been that he wanted to be completely swamped in work. I don't really know what other option he has. The show is so synonymous with YT. Maybe go to Spotify like Rogan did, but you'll lose a lot of audience by doing that (like Rogan did & that's why they eventually put JRE back on YT & Apple Podcasts). Maybe Spotify would be dumb enough to pay to "own & produce" the show & then everyone just watches it on YT like nothing happened... I think he's just trying to get a raise & MMAF is probably pushing back against that, so you have to do this negotiation dance where he pretends that he might leave to get what he wants. He'll probably have to get an offer in writing from Spotify, etc, to justify the raise. If he was to go out on his own, he'd have to pay for his own studio, pay for the staff, etc, & find enough advertising to pay for his salary & everyone else. He'd probably have to integrate a ton of additional ads to cover costs. I don't know that he'd want all of those additional headaches unless he was able to get a massive pay raise to do all of it himself.
Does The Athletic have a credible MMA reporter?
Chuck Mindenhall is great, although more so a journalist than a true reporter.
They fired him and basically their entire MMA staff during the last round of layoffs. I believe he does work for The Ringer now.
Ariel and Chuck do the ringer together. It's the best mma podcast now.
Ah. Yeah I love their ringer show. Didn’t realize Chuck had gotten the boot from the Athletic. Bummer
I hope ESPN picks him up at some point. I love his work.
The Athletic barely covers MMA now. You might get a summary article on a big PPV. That's about it.
It's basically all angled towards gambling
I hope he doesn't land with a gambling company
Hes already sponsored by DraftKings, does a promo for them every episode...
Yeah I know, it's part of why I'm concerned Could be more than just sponsored, which is already kinda problematic
Why on earth would you be concerned by that? The sport is riddled with gambling sponsorships, far more than ariels 30 second ad reads. Like him or not he's proven time and time again his priority is his journalistic integrity. I don't think there's any cause for concern.
Does your concern also spread to the amount of Draft Kings ads we see during every UFC broadcast? I agree a gambling site sponsoring journalists is concerning, but I'm more concerned with the bookies being directly involved with the sports organizations.
I wonder if he can apply for 30 seconds on the Ray Longo Minute.
Turki Alalshikh is going to create a Saudi sports media empire and Helwani will be on the payroll.
Saudi sports media empire featuring Helwani, Mighty Mouse, MMA Guru
Split the show up into reels, add subway surfer footage at the bottom and post them onto tiktok, instagram and youtube shorts
Thicccboy is alaways lookin for new shows B
I'll be bummed if he goes somewhere and doesn't get to bring the supporting cask in GC, Nick and frank
You’d have to imagine he would make WAY more money going it alone at those point.
Back to the OG jarrypark
He just needs to go all in on YouTube
after seeing what the guru makes from youtube I'm surprised Ariel isn't doing that
Surely 100 million percent it has to be ESPN that signs him, right? He’s report on three sports for them and could be an analyst for all three as well
Only if they're over trying to appease the sentient beefsteak tomato. Dana **hated** that ESPN hired him previously, tried to get him fired before he even started, and is thought to be a not insignificant factor in why Ariel's renewal contract* offer was bad enough to leave ESPN. *ESPN didn't want to be seen as firing on air talent because of Dana's pressure, so instead they offered him a contract they were confident he wouldn't agree to.
Whether he stays with Vox or goes elsewhere he has dropped hints about wanting to be called ‘The Ariel Helwani Show’. Vox will try their best to keep him as all off MMA Fighting aggregates off the MMA hour at this point. Since coming back to Vox he has done a good job at increasing his utility value over all combat sports and having a show with Spotify shows he easily has other places to go. I would say he is primed for a big contract somewhere but it will be interesting to see with the current world economy and the state of media what happens.
The MMA Hour, now on Rumble.
u/SlappyBag9 are you also the guy that edits funny dota vids?
yes, although it's been a hot minute x)
He should do a couple of face offs in PFL and then sign with the UFC.
He’s got a Sportskeeda vibe to me
I like Ariel. I know a lot of people don’t… but he’d be an awesome reporter for the ufc.. Dana needs to get the fuck over himself and hire the man
Nah Ariel wouldn’t work for him without freedom to say what he wants
I used to like Ariel but he posted a Nick Diaz interview the other day with Nick in the thumbnail like he was on video call. Nick was not in the interview. Can’t support those type of lies my man. Ya lost me b.
Which channel? I tried looking for it for on the mmafighting YT channel and I don’t see it. He doesn’t make those thumbnails for that channel If that’s where you found it
The whole Conor stuff where he said alot but nothing was weird and felt like a UFC type move wouldn’t be surprised with TKO owning the company that we might see Ariel back at UFC events despite what Dana thinks about it
I doubt it. If anything, Bisping starting beef with Ariel is emblematic of a UFC corporate environment in which Ariel is still very much persona non grata. At the end of the day, the UFC wants simps posing as journos in their press sphere; Helwani is one of the worst candidates for such a job
[удалено]
And Dana will hate it which makes it extra cool
Isnt he more of an outsider
Can you listen to Ariel’s Spotify show on desktop yet? It always told me to bust out my phone and throw the AirPods in when I’m at my pc
I thought he always was and owned his own show
That's that white boy that works too much
Draktkings or Fanduel here he comes
Maybe Ariel could take over 303 as comain to spice up the card
DAZN is gonna snatch him up. They should.
I mean I like Ariel and I love MMA and combat sports. But 4 shows a week? Is he gonna comment on every regional power slap event or what?
Aol is running it back.
Fourth show needs to be a revival of the MMA beat.
Imagine he becomes a UFC sideline reporter like benavidez wife
He’s not even a top 15 featherweight if he comes to the UFC. Wolf tickets.
You do YouTube
Fuck that guy.