Official UFC Thread - Part 4

[TheVileOne]

Dude he was interviewing Jones there and he totally softballed him. And no Helwani doesn't work for Dana White. He works for MMA Fighting and NBC Sports.

 

[Project862006]

and dana can blackball him and take away his credentials

 

[Darthphere]

And what would that do? Just another entry into the legend of Dana White? Oh man, what a badass, he blackballed some dude who didn't ask how his coffee was in the morning.

 

[VictorCreed]

and dana can blackball him and take away his credentials

No he can't.

 

[Project862006]

^yes he can he did it to yahoo or sherdog acouple years back yanked there credentials thus they cant be backstage,exclusive interviews,etc.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

And what would that do? Just another entry into the legend of Dana White? Oh man, what a badass, he blackballed some dude who didn't ask how his coffee was in the morning.

I doubt Dana White could do that but Loretta Hunt did get smacked around [metaphorically speaking] by the pompous ***hole.

 

[E-Man]

In fairness though, Loretta Hunt is an absolutely horrible journalist with an obvious bias against the UFC. Her getting her press credentials removed was obvious considering her articles were straight up UFC hate with no rhyme or reason.

 

[TheVileOne]

Loretta Hunt made some false claims on UFC based on rantings from a fighter agent Ken Pavia who was her "anonymous source."

And once again, why would Dana White blackball Ariel Helwani for softballing Jon Jones? My point is that Helwani softballed Jon Jones.

 

[VictorCreed]

^yes he can he did it to yahoo or sherdog acouple years back yanked there credentials thus they cant be backstage,exclusive interviews,etc.

And Sherdog and Yahoo totally collapsed and never reported MMA ever again...oh wait.

 

[TheVileOne]

As someone who has dealt with MMA credentialing on a regular basis: it's not something you are entitled to. UFC is a privately run organization and they can decide who they allow to cover their events live in person and who doesn't.

Just because they don't credential you doesn't keep you from covering MMA, interviewing fighters, going to fight camps, or even events. They aren't some sort of God given right.

With any sort of event I go to, I make a request and then it's basically up to them whether they grant my request or not. Same thing goes with Comic-Con or any movie premiere. They can either invite me or I can request to attend and they get to decide if I can go or not. Being a reporter doesn't let you just go where ever you want to go no matter who you report for.

Sorry but that's not how it works.

 

[misjuevos]

you said it yourself. they decide if they want to talk to you. helwani wants to interview jones more, so yeah he is not gonna push him too hard. he has to make sure he is gonna get more interviews with him, especially since his title fight is coming up. also it's not like he is interviewing a baseball player or a swimmer or something. he is interviewing a fighter. you gotta have that in the back of your mind that this guy knows how to hurt people. not saying it would ever come to that , but you still have to be aware of who you are talking to.

 

[TheVileOne]

misjuevos, the thing is though, Helwani is in a pretty high position these days he's pretty much like the Bob Costas of MMA right now. Helwani has asked some guys tougher questions before. He's even gotten on the bad side of fighters from remarks he's made on Twitter. I think he could've done more to ask Jon Jones some more relevant questions. For example he asked Jones about a tweet Jones deleted about Rashad Evans. OK why not ask Jones about the tweet he made about Dan Henderson and it being pretty insulting and disrespectful? That was a tweet Jones did not delete.

Jones said he got mad and that's why he mad the Rashad Evans tweet, so I'd like to know why he said that about Dan Henderson.

Any athlete can get mad and attack you look what happened to Jim Rome, though Jim Rome did sort of provoke that ball player into it.

But again, even when fighters get "mad" at Helwani sooner or later they come around and either go back on his show or ultimately interview him again because Helwani is pretty much the top journalist in the sport right now and he's everywhere. So on that same token in order to get their story out the best way to really do it is through Ariel Helwani.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

When it comes to Ariel, he's unarguably the most dependable name in MMA journalism. Nearly every amateur and professional fighter is aware of Ariel's status and name. He's virtually interviewed the entire MMA community. The only issue I have with Ariel though is that he never pushes hard enough during his interviews. He's sort of like the Jon Stewart of MMA.

 

[TheVileOne]

He's also won best MMA journalist the past two years and those were voted upon by fans.

But yeah sometimes I think he does softball a little. Other times he goes on some silly tangents or gets too focused on whether the fighters like him or not. If he's trying to be funny that's fine but he wastes too much time on it. I don't really care if a fighter likes the interviewer and is friends with them or if they have some sort of beef.

However when he does interview Dana White he almost always asks the relevant questions. When big stories break, he's usually the first one to get Dana's side of the matter.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

YES! It's a bit embarrassing to sometimes watch. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy and he's practically the only journalist I care to listen to when it comes to MMA, yet I wish he'd just take that step forward and leave behind that awkward and insecure teenage personality. The fighters don't need another friend, in my opinion.

I agree with that. He's very reliable when arriving to breaking news.

 

[TheVileOne]

Speaking of interviews I'm likely going to be interviewing Tito Ortiz next.

 

[DoomsdayApex]

Post here when you're finished.

 

[E-Man]

Speaking of interviews I'm likely going to be interviewing Tito Ortiz next.

Nice! Hell I still do the grave digger routine when I'm winning at any video game.t:

 

[TheVileOne]

Awesome. There should be like a DLC taunt in Uncharted 3 that lets you do the Ortiz grave digger.

 

[MMPRfilm]

Ariel softballs sometimes, but he does ask the questions that we want answers to.

 

[MMPRfilm]

Predictions on new fights?

Weidman over Boetsch (sub)
Lombard over Palhares (TKO and it will make me cry)
Stout over Makdessi (30-27 decision)

 

[MMPRfilm]

And I predict Condit TKO's GSP.

 

[Dr. Evil]

Sara McMann signing with Strikeforce is a good move for Strikeforce. Her first fight is on November 3rd against Liz Carmouche.

 

[TheVileOne]

Guess she will have that one and possibly move her into a fight with Rousey.

 

[TheVileOne]

LOL and now Aldo AND Rampage are out of UFC 153. Like I said, don't believe it's going to happen until the cage doors close .