Dana White opens up on Ariel Helwani’s temporary ban from UFC events

During UFC 199, fight fans were shocked to find out that popular MMA journalist Ariel Helwani had been kicked out of the event, and had been banned from future UFC events as a media member after breaking the news of Brock Lesnar returning to the UFC at UFC 200.

Helwani took to social media to fight the ban, which resulted in him gaining enough support that the UFC ultimately lifted the lifetime ban on Helwani just days after banning him for life.

On UFC Unfiltered, White opened up on the situation which almost ruined the UFC’s relationship with the WWE, who was letting Brock Lesnar compete at UFC 200, and the “big pity party” Ariel threw for himself.

“Ariel Helwani knows I’ve done a lot of s–t for Ariel Helwani,” added White when speaking on the podcast. “The way that he did it had a lot of people pointing fingers at each other.”

“Nobody else does that,” he said of the decision to break the news. “When you’re a real journalist, you reach out and say ‘Hey, this is the rumour, this is going on and everything else, and I’m going to run with it’.”

Video | Fabricio Werdum

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