They say time heals all wounds, and while I know from personal experience that doesn’t seem to be the case, for others, it certainly is true.
Dana White and MMA reporter Ariel Helwani used to get on well back in the day. Helwani seemed like one of the few reporters that White seemed to like. However, in 2016, it appeared that Helwani had incurred the wrath of White by reporting two stories. The first was Brock Lesnar’s return at UFC 200, and the Conor McGregor vs Nate Diaz rematch at UFC 202.
If you have followed MMA since the 2000s, you would know that White beefing and banning MMA reporters is nothing new. Reporters Josh Gross and Loretta Hunt were banned from UFC events. White had not liked what the pair had written about the UFC. As far as I know, they are still prohibited from going to events.
Things were made awkward in 2018 when ESPN became the home of the UFC. Helwani was signed to cover the UFC for the network. When asked to reach out, Helwani did so at ESPN’s urging. Unfortunately, he never heard back from White.
Helwani would later leave ESPN and return to his former stomping ground, MMA Fighting. He would also do a podcast for The Ringer. Last year, Helwani signed a multi-year deal with Yahoo Sports to start Uncrowned MMA.
This week, Dana White was on Logan Paul’s Impaulsive Podcast. When Helwani’s name was brought up, White asked how he was doing and said that maybe it was time for him and Helwani to get together and hash things out.
Helwani would respond on the ‘Ariel Helwani Show,’ and while he didn’t think that White was being serious in wanting to patch things up, by the end Helwani himself was considering it.
What happens from here is anyone’s guess. Personally, I would like to see them hash things out; it would remind me of the good old days. But if they don’t, the world will continue to spin.
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