Ariel Helwani has harshly criticised Dana White for the incident with his wife that was captured on video on New Year’s Eve.
The video clearly shows Dana White striking his wife after she first struck him.
Ariel Helwani also commented on White’s most recent venture, Dana White’s Slap League.
Ariel Helwani criticized White’s activities on a recent edition of The MMA Hour and questioned why TVÂ broadcasters and the Nevada State Athletic Commission aren’t backing out of the Slap league in light of White’s conduct.
Helwani emphasized by saying:
“Shame on TBS if they’re going to air that Slap League… Can you script it any worse?”
“Shame on anyone who picks it up afterwards after that. Shame on anyone who’s covering that. Honestly, shame on all of you. Shame on Nevada for sanctioning that. The Nevada that doesn’t sanction BKFC, they sanction that? You’re kidding me? … Shame on all of them.”
The bitter relationship between Ariel Helwani and Dana White is well-known in the MMA community. After revealing that Brock Lesnar would make a comeback at UFC 200, the journalist was banned from the event at UFC 199 in 2016. The ban was retracted a short while after but Helwani is still not allowed to be on UFC premises if White is there and has to be escorted out.
Helwani addressed the viewers who were supporting Dana White on social media.
Helwani said:
“Defending Dana White’s actions and defending him and saying that because he was slapped first, it’s all good? All is fair, equal rights? Excuse me! where I come from, you get slapped by a woman 10 times you walk away! Striking a woman… because you got struck first? … Anyone who is saying that, shame on you.”
White received support from Miesha Tate, Jamahal Hill, and Yahoo reporter Kevin iole who thinks White should be benched for a month:
“Of all the good White has done in this world — championing numerous charitable causes, creating thousands of jobs, privately going out of his way to help scores of needy, ill and down-on-their-luck people — he undid a lot of it when he chose to slap back after his wife first slapped him.”