8 Times UFC President Dana White Lost His Damn Mind
3. His Relationship With Journalist Ariel Helwani
Ariel Helwani is the most well-known journalist in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and for good reason. Until recently he hosted the weekly MMA Hour which has featured most of the biggest names in MMA at one time or another.
He is also known for his wealth of inside sources helping him get some of the biggest scoops in MMA history, and his unrelenting questioning, both of which have done little to endear him to UFC president White over the years.
The biggest rift between the two came in 2016 when Helwani media credentials were removed and he was banned for life from all UFC events. The controversial decision by White was made after Helwani used his aforementioned sources to release the news that Brock Lesnar would return to MMA at UFC 200 before the UFC had planned to.
While the ban would later be rescinded, Dana's feelings of bad blood towards the reporter have remained as strong as ever.
The bottom is line is this: it was all about Ariel! Journalism is supposed to be when you're a guy that covers the sport, it's about the sport. What we did in that spot was for the fans, and a lot of good people worked hard to pull that thing off and to make that thing happen, and to try to keep it a secret, including the WWE, and a lot of things were set in place. They graciously let us have Brock Lesnar, and a lot of things were set in place for them that had to be done, and it left a lot of people pointing the finger at each other, almost blew up a relationship and created a lot of bad blood behind the scenes, and he didn't care.