Ariel Helwani did a scathing hour long segment addressing all the derogatory comments Paddy Pimblett and Dana White had made about him on Paddy’s podcast.
Pimblett’s fall out with Helwani all started when Pimblett’s longtime manager (Cage Warriors owner) Graham Boylan asked Helwani to pay for an interview.
It all started with Pimblett and Dana White having the following exchange on his podcast:
 “I hate all these journalists, especially the ones what earn off us,” Pimblett said.
“Ariel Helwani, in particular, loves earning money off fighters. Every decent job he’s had he’s been sacked from. And now he’s just a biased content creator.”
‘The Baddy’ also said that Helwani ‘hates on’ Dana White and he ‘uses fighters to make money.’ Pimblett also called the MMA journalist a ‘rodent’ and a ‘cheeky c***.’
“He hates on you, hates on the UFC, and he even hates on me now. It proper annoys me,” Pimblett said.
“He uses fighters for clicks, uses fighters to make money, and then has the audacity to talk about the UFC and yourself, saying that they don’t pay the fighters enough. Get your dough out, Ariel.”
Helwani refuted each of the problematic claims point by point for an hour on his podcast. Perhaps the most surprising is the fact that Helwani played Pimblett’s voice message and explained how it is he came to invite Paddy to make an appearance on the MMA Hour in November.
Helwani traced back the Pimblett beef to an anecdote that happened last fall.
“Right here. It’s the next message. October 27, 2021. Paddy sends me a voice note. This is what the voice note said.”
“Yo, yo, the big fella. What’s going down, Ariel? Just to let you know that if you wanted to say hi or do anything with the man, I’ll be. I’ll be in NYC in November. Thank. Want to be there from the fair to the sixth and then I’ll be coming back again on the 17th or the 18th and then me coming back to Liverpool on the 25th. So I’m about in New York. Two separate occasions, just in case you want to see you meet. You know what I’m saying?”
“October 27th. That’s Paddy Piblett, sending me a voice note saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to be in New York if you want to do anything,’ I didn’t reach out to him. I didn’t ask him. He’s saying, if you want to say hello or do anything together, right. I obviously understood that to be an interview or some sort of media thing I write back, that would be amazing. I’d love to have you in studio on the show.”
“I write back, Good man, want to come in studio? When do you get in? On the third. Then he says, I’m coming from San Diego. All that I say, How about Monday, November 21st? He writes back, I’ll speak to Graham as I’ll be with him most of the time.”
When Helwani didn’t hear back he wrote the following on November 3rd:
“I write back. ‘Hey, Paddy, any word on the visit?’ He writes back.’ I’m in NYC now. Ariel got something with Barstool and Howler Head tomorrow on a podcast Friday morning. You’d have to message Graham and see what time I’ve got as I don’t know everything myself’.”
“I wrote no problem trying to be cheeky. He said, You’re man, I’m learning the lingo. ”
Boylan reportedly asked for payment for the interview on November 4th:
“Paddy has a lot of quote unquote, as he puts it, paid booking requests right now. If BT want to put a budget forward, we can look to get something schedule. Otherwise he’s got to take the paid work available to him. ”
Helwani was dismayed at this and sent the screenshots of the conversation:
“For the record, I had no idea he was coming in. He reached out to me to set something up. They reached out to me. I didn’t reach out to them. They reached out to me. So what I think in retrospect was, ‘hey, let’s see if Ariel will pay us for an interview’. I even sent him a screengrab of my conversation.”
Boylan reportedly denied they asked for payment and claimed he asked for payment from BT Sport instead of Ariel personally:
” I don’t recall asking you to get to pay. I don’t recall asking you to pay. You said it was for BT. Yeah, I said you’re asking me to ask BT. I do work for BT.
Helwani went on to confront Paddy with the unseemly request:
“This is insulting to me. If you are too busy, that’s fine. But to insinuate payment for an interview is something no one has ever asked me. From day one, I send them all the screengrabs insulting. He writes back, What the f**k have I done? Graham books my s**t. Now I don’t know what my schedule is. That’s why I tell people to message Graham”
This was interesting because every interview they previously did was set up through Pimblett personally.
“So you don’t do interviews now unless you get paid, or is it just for this trip? I’m confused by that.”
Pimblett goes on to explain:
“No, not if Graham says so. As I said, I do as I’m told by him, he’s never done me wrong. I’m very busy these next few days. ”
As per Helwani, Helwani went on the Pat McAfee show the following day. During the interview he asked Pat ‘Hey, Pat, has anyone ever asked you for payment?’ but didn’t name any names.
Now Boylan went on to post on instagram simultaneously that fighters need to start getting paid (for media).
“November 4th, almost simultaneously, almost to the minute he posts this. ‘Dear Fighters in today’s digital world, one that has serious commercial value for hits, traffic views, likes you need to know your value’.”
‘There is a time period in your career when you have to do all the podcast and interview requests. It’s part of your brand development. The exposure is required to help build your brand. The same stuff that they were making fun of me, supposedly that I say to people, he’s saying, You need to go on shows for your exposure.’
‘There comes a time as you grow, develop your brand. Following that you should request to get paid for your time when booked for any podcasts or interviews’
Helwani continued: “Great way to incriminate yourself. People being the smart ones that they are online. Put two and two together.’
Helwani clarified: “I never confirmed it. Nothing like that. So it’s the next day, it’s November 5th when I get this message. This is the next message in the conversation. This is from Paddy: ‘You’re a cheeky cunt chatting s*it about me like I asked you for money. Don’t even ask me for an interview again, you piece of s*it Show me your true colors’.”
And now Paddy is claiming that the whole episode was a misunderstanding. He told as much to ‘ Shakiel Mahjouri
“You wanted me to not do a paid gig, to do something for free with him and somehow people have defended him. Simple. That’s simple. I don’t need to talk about it anymore because that’s what the f**k he’s come out with is false narrative and made the big said that didn’t bother him but he made an hour and 15 minute video about it.”
“So, you know, we know it’s bothersome to lie and make himself look good. Read private messages but we’ll address this after the fight. Maybe manager don’t use. What if we’ve got all the stuff there is going to look like an idiot.”
“So, you know, we know it’s bothered him. He’s out to lie and make himself look good. Readin’ our private messages but we’ll address this after the fight. Me and me manager don’t you worry. We’ve got all the stuff there and he’s going to look like an idiot.”
“Yes, the voice memo where they said you want to meet or didn’t once mention in an interview, said, do you want to meet or so like have a drink or absence? I was like a friend. But, you know, either he obviously never saw me as a friend that I showed him as a friend. He only ever saw me at pound signs and dollar signs. I was always just a commodity to him. ”