MMA journalist Ariel Helwani and UFC president Dana White have shared one of the longest feuds in the history of the sport. The two MMA personalities have traded jabs for years during UFC Press Conferences culminating with Helwani being banned and having his credentials revoked. To this date Helwani is warned to leave the building as soon as White enters it.
The official backstory of the beef has Helwani getting banned due to being the one to break the headliner for UFC 200 – but Helwani disputes White’s narrative. UFC would later unban the reporter, but he’s still not welcome backstage.
During a recent episode of his show “The MMA Hour“, Helwani was talking about the Masvidal altercation with Colby Covington after Colby made comments about Masvidal’s kids.
“I don’t condone this,” Helwani told his fans during the MMA podcast. “however, you cannot be surprised at the byproduct of using family as part of your trash talk”
“Again family, religion, these things should not be a part of it”
“I saw someone say “show me the place where Colby talked about his kids”
“uh… did you not see the picture with the woman? Did you not see him talk about alimony? Did you not see him talk about the ex-wife? Did you not see him talk about being a deadbeat dad all that stuff that’s personal?”
“that’s information that does not need to be talked about in the build-up to a fight”
After that, Helwani brought up the time Dana White “crossed the line” regarding their feud. Ariel reported that he got really angered when White mentioned his kids during a UFC podcast.
“Anyone can say whatever they want, but he was on a podcast – I think it was UFC [Unfiltered] – and he was talking about the episode where I got emotional and he said… ‘One day his kids are going to look at him on camera and see him crying and see what kind of a weak person he is’… and nothing p****d me off more than that. Don’t mention my kids, don’t mention my family. I have never mentioned yours.”