Ariel Helwani
| Ariel Helwani | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 8, 1982 Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Occupation | MMA journalist |
Ariel Helwani is a Canadian mixed martial arts (MMA) journalist.
Helwani was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He grew up in a Jewish family in Mount Royal, Quebec and Westmount and attended the Akiva School and Herzliah High School. Helwani's mother is from Lebanon and his father is from Egypt.
In 2004, Helwani graduated from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, New York.
Helwani has covered mixed martial arts professionally since 2006. He works for MMAFighting.com (SB Nation). He formerly served as an "MMA Insider" for Fox Sports 1's weekly UFC Tonight show and other pre- and post-event programming. He is the former co-host of the Sirius XM radio show "Fight Club", is currently the host of The MMA Hour podcast and the MMA Beat show on YouTube.
On June 4, 2016, Helwani and two colleagues were escorted out of UFC 199 before the main event. He said their press credentials were taken and they were banned for life from all UFC events. He earlier reported the return of Brock Lesnar at UFC 200, hours before UFC announced it on the broadcast, without notifying UFC first. UFC spokesman Dave Sholler said such reporting was against standard practice. According to UFC commentator Joe Rogan, Helwani was asked to not report this news, as management suspected a mole had leaked it to him and, without knowing who it was, would then have to fire all possible moles. Through Twitter, Helwani called Rogan's story "100% inaccurate."
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