It has been long known that ESPN are slaves to the leagues they are in bed with it.
UFC is no different.
They let Dana White run the show even if that means letting Conor McGregor threaten to kill a man’s wife while she slept or throw their main MMA reporter out of venues. I can understand why Ariel Helwani would like the choppa fly once he was free of ESPN.
Sometimes it isn’t all that it is cracked up to be.
Because what they did on Saturday, the two shows that I had with Chael and DC, that I helped build, that I was the one promoting more than anyone, I mean all day incessantly, I never got a single plug in my three years there. A single plug, on any type of broadcast – any type of broadcast – for three years. I stopped counting at the seventh plug on Saturday for their two new shows.
I’m going to continue doing it the right way and the fair way. And they can bring their parade of sad sack fake journalists all day long to do whatever they want to do and bow down to them.
“I’ve never even shared this story. When I would be at events.. Let’s say it’s the weigh-ins, and there’s a desk there and I’m doing something beforehand. But Dana White is coming as a guest in thirty minutes or something. I would have to be escorted out of the venue because per his request, I couldn’t be in his vicinity or his line of sight.”
Helwani said these things while speaking to another ex-ESPNer Dan LeBatard.
Flip the page for the full interview.