Featured Image Credit: The Ariel Helwani Show
Topics: Ariel Helwani, Dana White, UFC
Nasir Jabbar
Ariel Helwani has issued a response to Dana White supposedly forgiving him for his 2016 act that saw him blacklisted from the UFC.
White has served a slew of suspensions and bans during his time in charge of the UFC.
He banned British fighter Paul Daley from competing inside the famed Octagon after his unforgivable act following his defeat to Josh Koscheck at UFC 113 back in 2010.
It's not just fighters White has butted heads with over the years as he clashed with veteran combat sports journalist Helwani in 2016.
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White banned Helwani from the UFC when he broke two major UFC fight announcements before they had been officially announced by the promotion.
The reporter was the first to report that Brock Lesnar would return at UFC 200 against Mark Hunt before confirming Conor McGregor would rematch Nate Diaz at UFC 202.
He was escorted out of UFC 199 after breaking those two stories and was handed a lifetime ban by White, although this was rescinded two days later following a backlash from others in the media.
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Helwani used to attend UFC events regularly until UFC 248.
He hasn't been to a UFC event since 2020 and suggested last year that his broken relationship with the 56-year-old could be to blame.
The beef between White and Helwani became a topic of conversation again when the UFC CEO appeared on Logan Paul's Impaulsive podcast.
Paul name-dropped Helwani when he and White were discussing the supposed lack of 'star power' in the UFC.
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White asked: "How's he doing?"
To which Paul, who had Helwani on his podcast last month, replied: "He's upset that the relationship is what it is with the UFC."
The UFC boss added: "Yeah? I'm upset about it too.
"Maybe we should figure this thing out; we should probably all get back together."
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It's unclear whether White was being sincere or sarcastic.
Well, Helwani is convinced White was not being sincere and believes his comments were a dig towards his career.
Speaking on his show, he explained: "To me, it comes off as him saying, 'Where is that guy? That dude fell off, he’s not relevant anymore'.
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"I don’t feel like anything that he said there was very sincere, I think it was 99.999 percent sarcastic."
Helwani continued: "Usually when I’m brought up, he calls me all the names under the sun... This time, he just said what you just heard him say. Is that because I’m so irrelevant to him? Maybe. Is that because he misses me? Maybe. I don’t think it’s the latter if I'm being 100 per cent honest."
He concluded: "Life is too short. If there was an opportunity to shake hands and be like, look, there was once a time where we were exchanging pictures about our kids and grew pretty close. yeah, sure I would like that. I believe holding grudges and having beef, I believe that’s a cancer to your body."