MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 333

Episode Date: June 6, 2016

Ariel Helwani opens up about being removed from UFC 199 and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Thank you very much for joining the show. Thank you very much for checking out the show if you're watching it live. This is a bit of a different show this week. In fact, this is the first time in the seven-year history of the show that we don't have a single guest book. So for everyone who's wanted to hear more talk, you get your wish this week. of course there's a lot going on and I just feel like yeah I've been doing some interviews today with some pretty important people I feel like this is my show this is my home this is my platform

you are my friends at home and you deserve to hear the whole story you deserve to hear everything that has happened since Saturday night and to be honest you deserve to hear everything that has happened over the last few years. And we'll address that on today's show. I don't think that this is going to be your typical four-hour show. I don't think I have it in me to talk for that long, but I'll go, you know, as long as needed and just sort of clear the air. I want to say a few things off the bat. I will reiterate what I said after the whole Fox thing happened. I hate that this has happened. that I'm talking about myself. I hate that there are no guests on today's show. I hate that I have to go on these shows and talk about myself. This goes against everything I was taught as a journalism

student. It goes against everything I believe in. It should never be about yourself. It should never be about the journalist, the media member. It should always be about the athletes. And with that in mind, and I appreciate New York Rick for point. pointing this out on Twitter, I hate the fact that anyone who would have been talking about Michael Bisping's win on Saturday night or could have been talking about his win on Saturday night is potentially talking about this story instead. What Michael Bisping did on Saturday, and I have to be honest with you, I have yet to see it. I don't know how to watch it because I wasn't in the arena when it happened is to me one of the greatest stories in the history of this sport.

And really, in a nutshell, is what I love so much about this sport. Here's a guy who was in the UFC for 10 years, who's had his ups and downs, who has always been great to the media, who's always been a fantastic interview, who has always come on this show whenever I've asked him, who wasn't the first choice to fight on two and a half weeks' notice, and who went out on Saturday in front of his family and realized his dream. That to me, Michael Bisping, what he did, I mean, it was almost, I didn't even know how to digest it all.

I couldn't believe that that just happened. Michael Bisping is the UFC medal champion. No one gave him a chance. And I hate the fact that I'm not talking about that today. I hate the fact that I'm not talking about Dominic Cruz's win or Max Holloways, but I just, I don't have it in me. And you will remember after Bispings win over Tiles Ladies in July, I was saying he deserved a title shot then.

After his win in February of Anderson Silva, I was saying he deserved a title shot then. And so I'm very happy for the man. And I wasn't able to interview him on Saturday, but I did reach out to him and express that to him. I also just want to say that to all the fans and fighters and friends of mine from back home who reached out, I also want to say, I mean, I can't even thank you enough.

And in particular, the media members, I mean, wow, surreal. As you guys know by now, I love sports media. I love it more than anything. To see people like Rachel Nichols of ESPN, to see people like Rich Eisen, Howard Beck, Frank Azoa, Mike Wise, and so many others. to see respected sports journalists who I read, watch every day, talk about this. Even my old friends at Deadspin, who have never been in my corner, talk about this. To see CBC News talk about this, the Guardian, the AP Sportsnet is surreal, it's dizzying.

And I hate that, you know, that this has happened. And, you know, maybe it's, maybe it was meant to be this way that, you know, things can change. I always say on these shows, you know, we're going to look back in 20 years at this great sport that I love more than anything, other than my family, of course, and say, like, were things really done that way? And I hope that this is one of those stories that we look back and say, were things really done that way? and so I really just want to thank everyone who has tweeted any kind of support and the fighters who have reached out to me who have tweeted it really means the world to me. So thank you so much. And I also want to thank my employers here at Vox who, as I told you a couple weeks ago,

continue to stand by me. And I'm just, I'm very proud to work for them. And I'm proud to work with my colleagues at MMA fighting. So let me tell you the story, all right. Let me tell you what happened, and then I'm actually going to go backwards. Let me tell you what happened on Saturday. UFC 199 was a great experience for me. On Thursday, we had the media day at the fabulous forum.

And last time I was there, as I told you last week, it was 1996. I went to see the Knicks play the Lakers, and I'm a big sports historian and basketball story, and I couldn't believe this was the place where in 1973, New York Knicks became the NBA champion for the second time. I loved this trip. I was in Manhattan Beach. This was a great trip. I got to see some old friends. I watched the NBA finals on Thursday. I went to Dodger Stadium on Friday. It was just, it was a fantastic trip. I was on the Rich Eisen Show on Friday. That was surreal in its own right. So it was just, it was a real, it was a real treat being there in L.A. and covering them. event. And you know how I felt about the main event and the co-main event and about the whole

cart. I mean, I was saying it was better than 200. Saturday afternoon at around 4.30, I had confirmed with multiple sources that the Nate Diaz versus Connor McGregor fight, the highly anticipated Nate Diaz versus Connor McGregor fight was all but done. Sign sealed and delivered, UFC 202, August 20th in Las Vegas. And so it's rare that when I break this news, I do so in the media room, but that's where I was when I reported it. Excuse me, when I confirmed it, you know, and we'll get to this a little later, I don't sit on news. The last thing anyone should ever do is sit on news. If you have it confirmed, you got to go with it. If you're sitting on it, You're not doing it right.

And, you know, some people behind the scenes have tried to say that I've sat on news to, you know, screw the UFC Tonight Show. That's not true. It's hard to confirm news. Now, when I know that news is about to be broken, I'm going, I'm digging. For example, UFC 200, which we'll get to in a second, I knew there was an open slot. So you could best believe that's a red light staring at me in the face. I'm going to go try to find that news.

That's what I'm here to do. That's what I do. Everyone on our site has a role. My role is the host of this show, MMA Beat, the Fight Week interviews, and the news guy. I can't write like Sean Alshaddy. I can't write like Chuck Mendenhall. I can't break down fights like Luke, Thomas. I don't have ratings and that insight like Dave Meltzer.

You get the point. I'm certainly not a photographer. like Esther Lynn, I'm not a videographer like Casey Lydden. That's my job. That's my role. And I'm big into the whole team thing. And so I believe that everyone has a role. And so that's my role. And I try to find the news and get it. So I got the Nate Diaz McGregor news. Well, I was hearing rumblings about Brock Lesnar and I finally got to confirm multiple sources. Again, I say this to anyone who wants to talk to me about journalism. You have to have it confirmed by multiple sources. You can't just have it confirmed by one.

And preferably it can't be from the same side of the table, if you get what I'm saying. You have to have it confirmed by multiple people when you want to report something. And I finally got that. That Brock Lesnar was close to signing a deal or he was close to finalizing a deal to return at UFC 200. And I finally was able to confirm that around 5 o'clock. And so I posted that as well on the site. And again, it's a lot. awkward because you're sitting there in the press room. It's not usually a place where you do it. So then

you report that, you tweet it out there and people are now like, whoa, what's going on? The Connor Nate thing, a member of the PR staff came up to me after I reported the Connor Nate's story and was kind of like, you know, I don't know if this is right, you know? I don't know if the, are you sure about this? And I said, yeah, I'm sure. Again, I take a lot of pride in batting 1,000 and not getting things wrong. When you hear it from me, I hope until the day I die, it will be true. You can go to the bank with that. I mean, my son's name, my second son's name is Walter. For a major reason why I wanted to call him Walter, Walter Cronkite, that's how much journalism means to me. And what was Walter Cronkite? He was, you know, the most trusted man in America. Who was Walter Cronkite? That's who he was.

I love the name, but I also love what that man stood for. That's what it means to me. I don't, I'm not playing around with this journalism thing. It means a lot to be trusted to have that credibility. And so, you know, when Colin Coward was saying to buy your tickets for September 17th, Mayweather McGregor, I was taking that personally because when I have a platform like this, when I'm able to talk to all of you, I'm not going to play games with you. I'm not going to let someone tell me something for negotiations to try to play games. No, if I tell you to buy tickets because it's a lot for September 17th,

you best believe it's a lock. That means a lot to me. So I reported the Brock News. And again, people were saying, are you sure about this? This can't be right. He's, he's a member of the WWE team. He has a contract with them. He retired from MMA. How could this be true? And I'm sitting there. I'm thinking, like I was talking to Casey Lydden, our videographer. I'm like, man, how many more times do I have to do this before they stop doubting me? I thought the Fadour Jideep Singh's story was the end of it, but it will continue. So that news comes out, and I was told for the record that they were going to break it on the broadcast. I did not include that in my story because I didn't really think it was necessary

to include where it was going to be broken. I knew it was going to be done on ESPN, the opponent announcement, but I'm not trying to steal anyone's shine. If I have news and sit on it. I'm not doing my job. Like, sometimes I call up managers and fighters and they tell me all kinds of stuff and then I say to them, is this on the record? And like, no, no, no, it's not on the record. I'm like, well, what was the point of that? You think I just want to get this information for myself? Like, just because we're friends? I appreciate it. And I understand that sometimes you need off the record information to, you know, build stories and understand where things are.

I get that. But, you know, for the most part, The end goal is to report it, to share this information with the public. So I couldn't sit on that. But I didn't want to tell the world about the pay-per-view. That was their thing. All you needed to know at that time was that this is close to being a done deal. That elusive open slot for UFC 200 was about to be filled by a very big name. That's news to me.

That's a big deal. And yeah, you can bet that, you know, of course I want to get it first. That's part of the rush as well. But that's not at the expense of being wrong. I will never do that. I will never say or report or write something that might be right just so I couldn't be first. I'd rather be last than be wrong. I knew this was right.

So then I was being told that the UFC was upset that this came out. But nothing happened. I was in the back. I was watching the fights. Right before the main event, right before the main event, a member of the UFCPR staff came to me and said that Dana White wants to speak to you.

Michael Bisping was about to fight Luke Rockhold. And I had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the most pleasant conversation. And I didn't feel like anything good was going to come out of it. So I said, look, you know, I want to watch this fight. cover it if you get what I'm saying you know take it in maybe after I don't I don't really want to go back and talk to him a couple of minutes later a higher ranking PR person came to me in a very serious way and said you must go to the back said the same thing said you have to go to the back I said well I'm not going to the back if unless my colleague Casey can come with me I didn't want to go alone

I didn't know what was going to happen. I wasn't going to go into that storm alone. After some back and forth, he agreed to let Casey come back with me. And I've thought about that a lot because of what happened to Casey that night, which I'll get to in a brief second. So we go to the back. It was just a hallway, a few steps from the media room. The main event's about the start, by the way.

And Dana White is there. other members of his team are there and he just says to me, you're out. Get out of here. You're done. We don't want you here anymore. Go to Bellator. I said, why? He said, you're too negative. I said, how is what I'm doing any different than all the other great sports journalists out there? Adrian Wojianowski, Adam Schefter, Bob McKenzie, Ken Rosenthal. How is this any different? I was talking about a guy who's about sign a contract to fight. I wasn't talking about super secretive stuff. I wasn't talking about the sale. I wasn't talking about disparaging things. I was talking regular fight news. And let's be

honest. I mean, all of this is happening and people are, you know, trying to say that I'm standing up for journalism and I'm this martyr and all this stuff. That's cool. And if you want to say that, fine, but it's all a little bit embarrassing because none of this is some great investigative journalism that I'm doing. I'm not going to win a Pulitzer for any of this. This is fight stuff. This is like, this is what we love to talk. This is barbershop stuff. Brock Lesnar's coming back. That's incredible. I'm not putting out there who they're negotiating with to sell the company. I'm not talking about, you know, having WME as their, you know, their representative in their sale talks, Goldman Sachs. I'm not talking about any of that.

I never do. He said, you're too negative. He said, Lorenzo wanted you out of Fox and that happened and he wanted, he wants you out of here and so you're out. Now, I will say, you know, a lot was said in this conversation. I think initially he just wanted it to be like you're out, see you'll later. But a lot of things were said. And a lot of what I thought were pretty mean-spirited things were said. I'm not going to betray that trust despite the fact that they did that and I'm not going to repeat all of it.

But when you have someone of Dana Stature saying the things that he said to me, it does affect you. And I said to him, look, Dana, as I've said in many interviews and I've said on this show, I owe a lot to Dana White in particular. I really do. UFC 97, the first time I interviewed him, my microphone died. He said, go out and get another one. I'll be waiting here. And I went outside. I went in my car. I got another microphone. He was still there when I came back. UFC 112, when Anderson Silva put on that weird performance, he interviewed with me. He's always given me the time a day and it hurts me that this has happened. But maybe I'm crazy, maybe I'm dreaming. I felt like deep down inside he didn't want to do that. I think he was respecting the wishes of his partner,

who have never really had a close relationship with, and he was doing what he was essentially told. I don't think he was torn up over it. I think he was pretty upset that, you know, I beat them to the punch, so to speak, but that's how I kind of felt in the moment. He also said that Brock Lester was really upset about the news. Now, it's interesting. Brock Lester went on ESPN Sports Center today and said he doesn't know who I am. Of course that's not true. That's Brock being Brock. He has said this many times before the whole Undertaker thing. I don't really take offense to that, but I did ask some people if that was true about him being upset and they said that couldn't be any further from the truth. Brock Lesnar is going to get paid a lot of money to fight at UFC 200.

He couldn't care less who's reporting what. I think we know that by now when it comes to Brock. In the midst of this conversation, a PR person standing in back of Dana White said that I could have had the professional courtesy to run this by them. He said that Kevin Ioli, who I also owe a lot to, who asked Dana White way back when maybe eight or so years ago to credential me when it took them a year and a half to do so, he specifically said Kevin Ioli would do that. And this stuck with me because they've also said this in the media afterwards, that I should have the professional courtesy to run this news by them first. This to me is an unbelievable line of thinking. Why? Well, how about the fact that the night before UFC 199,

Brett Akamoto, VSPN, asked Dana White if Brock was in negotiations to fight a UFC 200, and he told them no. So what's the difference? 24 hours later? You think he was going to tell me that? You think he was going to tell me it was true? When they had this cool promo and all this stuff plan, at best, I would have gotten in no comment.

I probably would have gone, don't report that as I've gone in the past and been forced to sit on things as I've done in the past. What's good, it's going to happen? Prior to UFC 169, I got the news that Hennon Brown was going to fight Dominic Cruz. And I went to the UFC and I asked them if this was true and I was going to report it on UFC tonight. You know what happened when I asked them? A couple hours later, Newsday reported it on a random Tuesday. Was that going to happen?

Or did they want to give it to someone else? And I get what they do. Strategically, they want to go on ESPN. They want to put stuff in this paper, that paper. I get what they're doing. But what's going to happen if I ask them? They're not going to get me, they're not going to give me the green light. they're not going to say okay you can have this one there's no way i graduated from one of the very

best journalism schools in the world syracuse university the s i knew house school of public communications and trust me nowhere in the rule book does it say you have to run things by the organization when you're about to report them what they do teach you is if you have at least two credible sources that are confirming this news and you feel strongly and are confident that this is right, you are good to go, no matter what it is. And let's go through my history of reporting news. What am I reporting? Again, this guy's fighting that guy, this guy's injured, that guy's contracts up. Really, let's talk about this news. So to hear that I should have had the professional courtesy to run something by them to me is just mind-blowing. Because time and time and again, where I

either told no comment or were just lied to. I asked the UFC if Hafeld Dosangos was injured prior to UFC 196. You know what I was told? Not true. Guess what? He was injured. And I knew he was injured. I knew for a fact that he was injured. They were already talking about Nate Diaz at that point. So then you're faced with a moral dilemma. Someone who you respect is telling you on the record that it's not true and then you're going to go out and report it. That makes things worse in my opinion. Now you're just defying them. Now you're just spitting in their fault. face. So I thought, let's cut out that awkwardness. And I'm just not going to do it anymore because they're just going to tell me not true. Now, I do believe when talking about professional courtesy,

I do believe, like, let's say, you know, I talk to Fighter X and he says, you know, the UFC told me this or that. I do believe that if you're writing an article, you must go and get both sides of the story. 100%. That is good journalism. Don't just go off one side. And quite frankly, on this site, we've made that mistake from time to time. writer X says something, we write an article, we don't get the other side, that's wrong. And by the way, that should go both ways. You know, everyone takes what the UFC says as gospel, well, sometimes it's just not the truth. Chris Cyborg, Germain Darren Damny is the most recent one. Good to get both sides of the story. So I 100% believe that you should ask for their side of

the story if it's a report about he said, she said, they told me this, this fight, 100%. but when you know that something is about to break that is that massive and is all but a done deal I don't feel like I need that confirmation and I feel like most journalists out there would agree with me so I was kind of dumbfounded when when that was said and reading that now is like it doesn't say that in any handbook so again Dana said to me you know go to bellator we don't want your negativity um I told them you know I was the one saying that one 99 was was better than 200. You know, I hear this a lot about the negativity.

That to me is like, you know, looking at my Twitter followers, my Twitter mentions, and 99% of them are positive and there's one person who says something bad. That's what they always focus on. I'm here traveling around the world, doing all these interviews, and for the most part, let's be honest, we're selling pay-per-views here. it all comes back to them like we're out there for the i love this sport i'm not here to ruin the sport

i'm here to cover the sport sometimes there are not so positive questions but let's be honest let's go through the history of this show and all my interviews what are we talking about the upcoming fights and that just gets people to watch that just helps them so this idea that i'm being negative because i'm reporting this stuff early or that i'm talking about free agency i know that there are people in the UFC who love a good free agency story about the NFL or the NBA, what's the difference here? It's not negative. It's not vindictive. It's all sports. It's, it's, it's, it's fun. It's fantasy. It's an escape valve for the public. But to them, it's, negativity. Could you imagine if I was actually writing negative things, like legitimate negative

things? What would happen then? And so I told Dana that, you know, I really thank him. for everything he's done for me. Again, I don't hold any ill will towards him. He's done a lot. I extended my hand to shake his hand. I think he shook it. I don't remember, to be honest, but I think he did. And I said, you know, I hate that this is happening. And I hope that at some point you will reconsider this. I understand that you're mad and I'm not going to create a stink. But, you know, I really hope that cooler heads will prevail. He then looked at Casey. who has been my videographer since 2009, my partner in crime, I think he's one of the best, not just in MMA, but in sports, and asked him if his fiance, he referred to her as his wife,

but they're not married just yet. Esther Lynn was Caged side. He said yes, and Dana said that, you know, she has to leave as well. And that really bugged me because they did nothing wrong. I've been with them for a long time and I consider them good friends and I didn't want to see them leave and not be able to do their jobs. And I hope that this doesn't affect MMA fighting if, you know, if it affects me, you know, I'll deal with it. But my colleagues didn't do anything wrong.

And to be honest, I didn't do anything wrong. But at the end of the day, they're mad at my reporting. I'm the one. They shouldn't have to face any repercussions in my opinion. And we've been, you know, toyed with in the past. You're in the back. You're in the front. You're in this.

You're in that. No interview. Esther is the best. there's no one better than her. In MMA, in boxing, and maybe in all of sports, she should have captured that moment with Michael Bisping. But it is important to note that, you know, the credential is not a right.

I get that, 100%. That's not what I'm here for. I'm not here to try to, you know, argue that I deserve that credential, that I put in the time, that I've done the work, blah, blah, blah. No way. It's their company. And again, it goes back to what I always talk about with, you know, the UFC is not the NFL.

Dana White is not Roger Goodell. They are an owner. They are Mark Cuban, James Dolan. That's who they are. They own a team. And this is their show. And if they don't like me or Mr. X or Mr. Y for whatever reason, we got to deal with that.

It's not a right. I get that it's a privilege. And it has been a privilege going to all these events. No one recognized that more than me. I talk about it all the time. But you do hope at some point your work says something about who you are as a professional and that you can go out and cover these events

and I think Esther and Casey have definitely developed that reputation. So in my mind I was thinking, man, if he didn't come with me, would they have been out as well? You know, would Casey and Esther have had to leave as well? But, you know, I honestly didn't feel comfortable going back by myself.

And so he told me to leave, again, and other things were said, not that important at this moment to go over them. I thanked him and we went to the back. Someone followed us, someone stayed with us as we packed all our stuff. It was disappointing. You know, Michael Bispings music was playing

and it was just all very surreal. They watched us like we were, you know, I felt like I was being watched like I was a dog. And they watched us pack our things and they walked us out. like literally walked us out until we were pretty much next to our car just to make sure. I don't know. We didn't say a word to the guy who walked us out.

I never seen him before, but it's like I wasn't going to start a fight. In fact, as we were about to go into the car, I opened Twitter and I saw that Michael Bispin became the middleweight champion. It was just like, I can't believe this is all happening, you know? And I didn't know what to do with regards to making a public because, again, my stance in the past is not to make this stuff public. You know, there are other things on this show that I'll tell you about that. I never wanted to make public, but I feel like now is the time.

And so I was reminded by someone of what happened with Rachel Nichols and Michelle Beatle when they were denied credentials by Floyd Mayweather's team prior to the Pachial fight. I was reminded of them going on Twitter and the kind of story that that became. And I thought to myself, well, I'm obviously. not as big as them, but perhaps I do need to make this public because this kind of stuff happens from time to time in our sport. I do think that the UFC, you know, go back to that roundtable I did with Richard Deich. I was actually very complimentary of the PR staff. I think we've

come a long way from the days back in 2008, 2009 when quite frankly, they were held to deal with. I mean, they just didn't get it. I think the PR staff has really come a long way and there's some really lovely people who understand the role of the journalist, media. But at the top, it appears as though that stance hasn't changed, that it's still the old days for whatever reason, which is strange because you can make the case that in the early 2000s, late 90s, you know, the MMA media, the internet media were the ones really keeping this sport alive. I mean, you know, the Sherdogs and all these, you know, these pioneers, these. true pioneers. And that's why I wanted to have Jeff Sherwood on the show a few weeks ago,

because they were the ones doing it way before any of us here on this show or, you know, some of the newer journalists. But I decided I need to make it public because, you know, a lot of young journalists come up to me all the time, some who cover MMA, some who don't, some who want to. And they say, you know, for whatever reason we look up to and you've done a great job of giving us hope that we can be MMA journalist. When I was in Syracuse in 2001, there weren't a lot of people doing this full time. And I was very far away from doing it full time. But that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to, like I said, and people make fun of me, I wanted to be the Howard CoSalle of MMA. And I wanted someone, somewhere, some executive in 10 years to say, all right,

who's the guy? Let's hire him. That was my goal. My goal was to be the face of MMA media. I wanted that. Of course. Same way LeBron James wants to be the best basketball player and you at home want to be the best plumber, accountant, doctor, that's what I wanted. I don't think that says anything bad about me. And so my line of thinking for making it public was, if they're going to do this to me for reporting about some fight news, what are they going to do to the younger guys who have come up to me and said that we're afraid to report things? That's not the way it should be. I get their perspective. They have a big announcement. They have a super cool promo. They have something that they want to do. They promise to scoop to someone else. I get that. But guess what? It's 2016. News gets out there.

We're all trying to advance our careers. We're all trying to break news and be reporters and things like that. It's not malicious, but we're not going to see eye to eye all the time. Sometimes you're first. Sometimes I'm first. More often than not you're first. And guess what? When the news is out there, no one cares who is first. No one cares. Do you think anyone would be talking about me reporting this on Saturday, today, if none of this happened, we'd be talking about Brock versus Mark Hunt, we'd be talking about Michael Bisping new champion, we'd be talking about Dominicruz and what's next for him. No one cares. Of course, as the insider, you want to, that's part of the job to be first and things like that, but at the end of the day, no one cares.

And so, you know, if there are other people who are afraid, it's not, none of us are journalists. We're just advertising. We're just PR. And it can always be like that. That doesn't exist in other sports. Other sports have the baseball writers association of America, the boxing writers, the NFL writers, the NBA writers. These guys band together.

We don't have that in our sport. And so what I believe is the only way to get this out there, the only way to let people know what goes on in MMA is to put it out there. And that's why all the interviews. that I've done today from Dan Patrick to Rich Eisen to Dan Lebitard and others later, I thank them all because they're doing a huge service to every journalist out there. This is an MMA bubble story and it has been for a long time. Maybe, you know, what happened to me can shed some light to the rest of the sports media out there

that this goes on in our sport, that there are journalists who are afraid. Don't ever be afraid. If you're confident, if you're right, just report it. there should be no repercussions. That's what I believe. That's what I was taught. And so initially I didn't want to do these interviews. I didn't want to tweet and all that stuff.

But then talking to some people that I respect, they said, no, you have to. You have to tell the world what's going on. It's important. Maybe this helps other journalists in or out of MMA. And so I'll tell you, I started tweeting what happened. And then again, it killed me. It really did.

It killed me. I wanted to talk about Michael Bisping. I wanted to talk about 199, a great card that delivered. Brock Lesnar, all that stuff. Connor and Nate, I mean, that shot of Nate, of all people, the non-needle mover, standing there with his hands up. I mean, how are you not inspired by that? Good for that guy, man. Good for you, Nate.

Good for everyone involved with Nate's team. Good for Nick. Good for all of them. Those guys are winning. Well done, but I couldn't. And so people have asked me, has the UFC reached out? Has anyone reached out? No one's reached out.

I saw some quotes that it's not wholly accurate that I'm banned. Or maybe that the reason why I'm saying I'm banned. I mean, that's what I was told. I was literally told that, you know, Brock was very upset. They told me that Brock was super upset that he suggested they do certain things to me. I kid you not. but they weren't going to go there, which I appreciate, and that, you know, I was too negative and enough was enough.

And so I tweeted that stuff and it was very hard. And to be honest, I didn't know what to do. I wanted to go to the airport, even though my flight was seven hours away. I was kind of nervous being in my hotel. I didn't know what was going to happen. I was emotional. A lot of people that I respect were reaching out and talking to me and giving me advice. And, you know, I hate that Casey and Esther had to leave, but we all did. And we went on our way and I went home yesterday. Now here I am, you know, doing some interviews this morning and doing this show now. And that's the general gist of what happened on Saturday. But now I think it's important, and I have a weird memory when it comes to this stuff, it's important to tell you the whole story. Because I'm not naive.

I know that this wasn't an isolated incident. I know that they didn't just, you know, I see this one story and say, oh, you know, let's get rid of them. This has been brewing for a little bit now. So I'll go through a little bit of a timeline and explain to you some things that have happened along the way, things that have kept myself, some things I haven't told anyone. And hopefully it will shed some light on everything that I've had to deal with. And hopefully, you know, this notion that I'm some shill, that I'm some puff piece reporter, that I'm in their pocket will go away.

Because it's been a great ride and at times a not so great ride. Kind of all started around December of 2010. A production company that I knew said, you know, we want to make a show about you, like an MMA show. And I remember where I was. I was in Montreal for UFC 124. and one of the places that they wanted to pitch this show to was fuel TV. Remember fuel TV? Let's get comfortable. I thought that was great. This is my big TV debut. This is awesome. I'm going to

have a show, an MMA show. This is fantastic. Let's do it. Now again, I believe that I owe a lot to Dana White. And we've had a great relationship. I've sent him pictures of my kids. And he said nice things. And when the Patriots beat the bills, he says not so nice things. But it's been a fun ride. And I hope this isn't the end. Well, I called Dana and asked him, hey, I have this opportunity maybe on Fuel TV. What do you think? Should I do it?

You know, I actually was like looking for his advice. He told me that that wasn't a good idea, that the TV deal is coming up, end of 2011. Bigger opportunities are coming. Just hold off on that. Do you know how hard that was for me? Do you know how hard it was for me to say no? to a potential TV opportunity, the first one of my career, I struggled with that so much. It was the hardest thing. It was the hardest decision to go back to this group and say,

you know what, I have to bow out. I ain't tell them why, but I have to bow out. I'll explain why later. And why did I do that? Because I really respected Dana and what he was telling me. I really respected his advice. This is the most powerful man in our sport. I really respected it. And at times, maybe I was asking him questions here, there, but I knew that deep down there was a respect. And so I wanted to respect his wishes. And so I turned down that opportunity and it killed me inside. It killed me. I didn't know if I was going to get another TV opportunity. This is what you have to remember. There aren't that many opportunities for media members, especially on TV covering MMA. There just aren't. It doesn't exist. I turned it down and I hated that. The show never came to fruition.

Certain, they tried to switch it up and fuel never bought it. But the funny thing was, 10 or so months later, the UFC signed a deal with Fox. And guess what was their unofficial home, so to speak? Fuel. And so I was thinking to myself, I could have been there before the launch. Why did I turn this down? Well, as you know, as was reported by the Wall Street Journal, the UFC was in talks with NBC at the time, with Viacom at the time.

G4 was going to be the UFC network. Fox came in at the 11th hour. So I was like, man. but it all worked out because I ended up on fuel anyway. And I've told you about this first meeting with the Fox Brass. This was in August of 2011, right after the big announcement, I sat down with a couple of people from Fox. And I remember them telling me that, look, we're going to be in business with the UFC. But we want to do journalism.

And you know my eyes lit up when I heard that. I love journalism. Yes, this is great. but they didn't offer me a contract that day. And I give a lot of credit to Dana. Dana actually told me that they were going to make the news, they were going to break the news on that day. And that's how I knew to fly out to LA for the big announcement.

What a surreal day that was, being on the Fox lot, and they put that out there. It was tremendous. He helped set up that meeting with the Fox people. I mean, getting his stamp of approval pushed me to the front of the line. There's no doubt about that. And I'll always be grateful for that. I sat down with them.

They didn't offer me anything, but it was a nice conversation. In around December, of 2011, I got a call offering me position on UFC Tonight. I was one of the first people that was given a position or offered a position on air for UFC tonight. There was some talk of Kenny Floring being on. Todd Harris was the original host. And they said they wanted me to be the insider, the Jay Glazer. That was great. Wow. All right. It's finally happening. Remember, the very first UFC on Fox event was November of 2011, but the, the, um, the, um, The broadcast team from a Fox perspective was Glazer.

I think Kenny was on the desk. And Stefan Bonner was the backstage reporter. And I was bummed because I met with them in August. I was like, man, I would have loved that opportunity. But, you know, so be it. So someone from Fox offered me the job to be on UFC tonight. I jumped at it. I didn't negotiate.

How much you guys are paying me to do this? I'm in. That's great. A few months later, actually, no, excuse me, a few weeks later, I was also told. And it was kind of in the same conversation that, you know, Fox is going to start doing these pre and post fight shows. once the deal kicks in in 2012. They're going to do pre-fight shows, post-fight shows,

weigh-in shows, ancillary programming, and they asked me if I wanted to be that backstage reporter guy. And I said, yes, for sure. But there was one catch. There was one catch. And I'm very happy to be talking about this because some people at Fox and some people at the UFC are telling other people that they have this big chip in their favor

that they're going to, you know, expose me. Well, much like I do with the news, I'll break this one before them. The catch was that for the pre-end post-fight shows, the check has to be signed by Zufa. So UFC Tonight is one contract, and that's a Fox production. Zufa has nothing to do with it. But even though Fox is paying the UFC for those broadcasts, way-in shows, post-fight shows, all that stuff, the money is going from Fox to Zufa to the talent. the talent. And I hated this. I don't want to get any check from Zufa. I don't want that at all.

I've turned down opportunities from not just Zufa, from every other promotion out there. At some point, I've talked to every single one. And I've turned them down. I want to be a journalist. I want to be unbiased. I don't want to be tied to a single person who I'm covering. I mean, I would go so far as to not take a goody bag. I felt uncomfortable taking food. I remember the first class I ever took at Newhouse in journalism was journalism ethics, and they hammer that down your throat. There's like a rule that you can't take anything above $30. I kid you not, because you can't owe them anything if you want to be unbiased.

And I hated that. I hate it. I'm like, why, guys, please. The money is going from Fox to Zufa to the talent. Why can't we just skip the middleman? Why can't it just go from me to Fox? From Fox to me? I'm already getting paid by Fox for UFC Tonight.

Why can't they just go from Fox to me? And they said, well, the way the deal is is that there's a budget for each show. And Fox writes them a check because it's airing on their network. And Zufa then, you know, staffs the show the way they see fit. Do they pocket some on the side here or there? Maybe. But they get to run that show. The weird thing was, is that it was the same producers.

It was all the same team. It just was on UFC Tonight. It was an in-house thing on their, you know, on their terms in their studio. but at the events, this is a ZUFA thing because they're going from, and you know if you've learned the history of the sport, HBO wanted to do a deal with the UFC, Zufa wanted to control the production. ESPN, they've talked about, oh, how could this happen? ESPN1, ZUFA has always wanted to control the production, much like WWE does. And so they said that, you know, you got to take it or leave it.

And I hated this. And I have the emails to prove it. And I tried to figure out a way. I even thought about just working for free. I wanted to be on TV so bad. I want it to be covering. It's not like I can go from the TNT broadcast team to the ABC broadcast team to the CBS broadcast team to the Fox Sports Broadcast team. There's only one broadcast team if you want to be a part of the broadcast team that covers the number one organization in the world.

There's only one. And that's Fox. And so do I give up that opportunity and not be on TV and just kind of remain the internet guy? Or do I try to advance my career, do better for my favorite? family, you know, and try to realize this dream of being the Howard CoSell of MMA. And I spoke to some mentors of mine, people outside of this sports world, people in the sports world, people on TV. I spoke to many people, over 10. And they all told me, look, this is 2012. This is the way sports are. They're a respective journalists on MLB network, NBA TV.

This is just the way it is. And it may suck to you. But if you want to be on TV, this is what you have to do. And I hated it. And I felt horrible about it. But I ultimately agreed to it. And the way I justified it in my mind was this money is coming from Fox. Fox to Zufa to me. I was asked to do stuff for UFC FightPass. I've been asked to do stuff for UFC.com. Those are standalone projects that have nothing to do with Fox and I've turned every single one down. I don't want anything to do with it. And some good operations, opportunities. But when it was a Fox show and I was holding the Fox microphone, I figured, okay, this is, you know, and I'm working with the same colleagues at Fox. These people are Fox employees.

This is what I have to deal with. This is, these are the terms. And every year, it was always a one year contract up until the last one, which was two years. Every year, I was like, is there anyway, can I do something? Can I change it? Can we just lump it all into one? And I was always told no. and now they're telling people behind the scenes that like I'm a hypocrite and I'm unethical for agreeing to this. Those people know better than anyone that I didn't want this. And yes, I lay in that bed and I'm happy to share. But at the end day, in my opinion, that was Fox money. That was coming from Fox.

It was just taking a detour. I never did anything independent of Fox for the USC. I never did a dot com, a fight pass, anything. when I appeared as a talking head for one of, you know, some of these things. Sometimes I would do them and they would pull me because they were mad. I never got paid for that. Never, ever. And I would never.

And since all this thing happened with Fox, Bellator, one FC, World Series of Fighting, they've all said, come work for us. Titan FC, they all said come work for us. And I say, no, I don't want to work for a promotion. I never want to work for a promotion. I want to be a journalist. So the deal is rolling along. In early January of 2012, I was actually.

actually offered a deal by Fox Sports.com and they wanted me to be all under the same umbrella. And I actually said, like, okay, if I do this, can we just be all under the same umbrella? That one thing was a part of it. And it was a great deal. And it was very much appreciated. But at the end of the day, I'm a very loyal guy. And I love the people here at Vox. I love the people here at MMA fighting.

I didn't want to leave them. I couldn't do it. So I thought, okay, this is great. I have an MMAfighting.com job, an internet job, and then I have a TV job. great. I'm on UFC tonight. I'm on the pre-impost shows. And then I get to do my thing here where I can just be myself. Well, May of 2012, I was told, I respectfully declined. I remember where I was, I respectfully declined the Fox Sports.com deal. And then I was told I was off TV. May of 2012, I was told that I was off TV, off UFC tonight, off the broadcasts. Because I

wasn't all in. And I remember having a conversation with Dana saying that, look, I'm just a loyal guy. I don't want to leave my friends and my colleagues at MMA fighting. Can you please reconsider this because it's not that I'm not all in. I just really love working for these people. And I feel like I have the best of both worlds. And thankfully, he was like, all right, you can stay on the TV. UFC tonight. Remember, they all kind of lump them in together. So that was the first time that I felt like, all right, this is, you know, this could be taken away at any moment's notice. September of 2012, it was UFC 152. And, you know, and I hope I am entertaining you all by, I hope you're not bored by any of this. September of 2012, you know, for me, the main event

is the most important thing. You know, you stand backstage at these events. And more often than not, I have to say, like, I always left frustrated. Because here I am saying to myself, you know, I'm the guy, I'm the best, I'm Craig Sager, I'm Howard Kosell, you know, I want to interview the big names. I want to interview everyone, but like, the reason you're there is the main event. And I remember September of 2012, UFC 152, John Jones beats Fetor Beltford. And at the end of the show, he does a talk back with the studio in L.A. And I'm saying to myself, like, look, I'm here, standing back here in Toronto. I've been standing here for seven hours backstage. I never get to step foot in the arena, you know, can I at least interview the main event? Can I at least do that?

I mean, that's why we're here. Could you imagine if Craig Sager or Rachel Nichols or Doris Burke or Ken Rosenthal is at a sporting event and they let them interview everyone but LeBron James or Stefan Curry or the guy who wins the game at the end, the game winning shot, game winning home run. You can interview everyone up until that point, but once the big moment happens, you're out. What is that? I mean, yeah, that might make me, you could call me egotistical, selfish, whatever, but I said this to many people. As Keishon Johnson once said, just give me the ball. I want to pitch in the ninth. I want to score a touchdown. I want to be that guy. I want to prove that I could be that guy. And so those talkbacks would kill me.

And it kind of all started at 152. And I said to a producer, I was like, I would really love to do this interview. Another producer came on and told me that I was selfish, that I was a diva. I mean, just laid into me, laid into me. I couldn't believe it. I mean, at the end of the day, what was I asking for? The ball on the ninth. Maybe my timing was off, but I can assure you I never did that again. And again, at that point, there were rumblings that I was going to be taken off TV. In 2013, I got the dominant crew. Andrews Henne Barrow News, and I tried to confirm it, and then moments later it was given to someone else.

And I remember having a conversation with Dana White. He was getting his kids ready for school. It was great. It was rare that I got to speak to him on that level, but I remember talking to him and saying, like, man, this is tough. You know, I went to the UFC to confirm. And he said, why? You got it.

You had it. Go for it. He said, listen to me, the insider is sometimes not going to be liked. you are reporting things before us. But if you got it, you got to go with it. You have to have thicker skin. He said this to me multiple times throughout my career. You have to have thicker skin.

You have to believe. You have to have confidence. And in my mind, I always remember that moment in that conversation because I said, wow, if he's giving me the seal of approval, if he's saying you got to go out there and not be afraid and report, I'm good. I don't have to worry about anything. I'll never forget that conversation.

And I reminded him of that conversation. on Saturday. Didn't have much to say. In January of 2014, I was told that Bellator was having a media day in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, minutes away from where I live in Williamsburg. And I was told that all the big name fighters

were going to be there from Belator. Now, up until that point, now this is around two and a half years ago, I had never been to a Bellator event, as far as being there in person, pad fighters on my show, and I still haven't been. And the main reason why I haven't been to a Bell Tour event, to be honest, is because I go to enough UFC events and I have two kids and a wife and, you know, I can only be away for so long. You know, I go to around 20 or so events and when you think about that, you know, three, four days, you're almost away for half the

year. Or at least, you know, there's 52 weeks in a year, almost, you know, 26. So I never went to to our events because I was going to enough because of the UFC deal. But remember, before I got into the UFC, before I was credentialed by the UFC, you know, I was going to affliction, elite XC, strike force, covering IFL. I mean, I'll never forget those people. Those, you know, those PR people that brought me in, you know, the Micah Frommitz's of the world, the Jerry Melanis of the world, John Beirutie, BZA, those guys were giving me opportunities that the UFC wasn't. Thank I had them. Thank God with MMA rated being around, I was able to go cover those events, Kimbo and all that stuff. Gina Carrano, those were big names. So thank God I had that opportunity.

So I never went to Bell to where it just didn't make sense. But they were 10 minutes from home and I was asked by, you know, am I fighting? Could I go cover this day? And so I went and I didn't think nothing of it, to be honest. Shortly before that, I was told that, you know, we're not going to be getting as many interviews because they have TV partners and things like that. And, you know, I was bummed out about that. This is from the UFC. I was bummed out. But I know this stuff kind of goes in waves and so I figured we'd weather the storm. I didn't go, you know, because of that. I didn't go in protest of that. I just went to the media day. It was a fine media day. A couple of days later, I don't know why I thought this, but I realized that I was blocked on Twitter

by all these accounts. Dana's account, Lorenzo's account, UFC news account, official UFC account, Instagram, all that, blocked. And I was wondering, why is this happening? What happened? I started reaching out to people at Fox. Have you heard anything about the UFC being mad

I'm blocked by all the accounts? A couple of days later, I remember the UFC was in Georgia. It was Luke Rockhold versus Costa Philippa and I was told that I was off all the broadcasts. I was off the pre-fight show, the post-fight show. I was off UFC tonight. I was done. It was over. No one gave me a reason why.

No one. I couldn't believe it. I started to think. What did I do? And the only thing I could come up with was the Bellator Media Day and that I was tweeting these videos out that we got there. Could that have been it? Is that what I did?

I reached out to Dana White multiple times. Nothing. I finally got a hold of him a couple days before UFC on Fox in Chicago. That was the event headline by Benson Henderson versus Josh Thompson. And we had a conversation and he said, told me that, look, he actually said, I like you kid, you know, but we're just not on the same page here. You're going to Bellator events. It just, it doesn't work. And I said, well, okay, I understand, but can I at least talk to you? Can we sit down face to face? And he said, yeah, sure,

I'll be in Chicago. Let's sit down face to face. So we sat down in Chicago on that Thursday before the event at his hotel. And it was a great conversation. It was like a two-hour conversation. and I said repeatedly in that conversation, that look, if you want to take me off the Fox events, I get it. To be honest, I was relieved because of that pay thing, because of all the times it was taken away from me, because of the fact that, you know, like I always felt like I was in an island by myself. I wasn't getting opportunities.

No one was sticking up for me. It was a relief at that point. I was happy. I was done, you know? I said, I'm not going to fight that. The only thing I'm asking you is three things. Please unblock me from Twitter. because it's important to see the tweets from the UFC, to do my job.

I said, I'd love to not be banned. And I said, I love if we could still have our good relationship. And he said yes to all three. In fact, he called someone that moment and said, please unblock Ariel. And I was so happy with that conversation. You know, the weight was lifted off my shoulders. We had a great conversation.

I was unblocked. I was happy in Chicago. and I remember sitting at the wayans the next day with the crowd and news started to get out like, why is an aerial on the broadcast? He's in Chicago, but he's not on the broadcast? What's going on here? And New started to filter out. And it was an awkward position because to me, again, I don't want to make it about myself.

I don't want to shine the spotlight on myself. I don't want to cause controversy. I don't. I want to have a good relationship with the people I cover. I don't want to be enemies. It's surreal that I'm even talking about all this. So I kept it in. Remember that show after the two days later?

and I said one day I'll explain, I guess today's the day. I sat there and it was hard to be asked what's going on, why are you here? Why are you at the event but not working for Fox? But I kept it to myself. After the way in, I got a call from Dana saying, all good, you're back with Fox. Let's just pretend this didn't happen. And to me, it was kind of like, oh, now I have to go back to that, you know, the Fox people didn't even stick up for me. They took this away from me and no one even stood up for me. no one called me, no, nothing. And then I have to go back to, like, working the pre-fight show, the post-fight show, and dealing with that, you know, burden.

And UFC Tonight was tough, man. UFC tonight was tough. Getting four to five scoops every single week, it's not like I'm Jay Glazer, and there's four to five scoops from 30 owners, 30 GMs, you know, 1,500 players. There's one owner. There's one GM here. The matchmakers don't talk to you. They're not allowed.

It's tough to get four to five scoops every week, especially when the UFC tries to break everything themselves. So I was kind of relieved. But he said, you're back, and I said, thank you, and I'm going to keep doing my job. I'm not a quitter. I'm not going to walk away. My wife was pregnant with our second child, and he was soon going to join us, and, you know, I need to provide. You know, this is, there's a very short window and small window and a short leash.

So I said, okay, I was only back, though, in April. So I went to UFC 169, but I was still sitting in the back. I took some time off because my son was born and then I returned in April to do the Fox thing. Like nothing had ever happened. You can best believe though in the back of my mind I was a little disappointed that no one stood up for me. Now around that time frame, in the words of my man, CM Punk, this is a pipe bomb. This is a shoot, right? If you want to play pro wrestler, around that time frame, something else happened. That's the one thing I'm going to skip over for now. That's the one thing I just don't want to get into. I don't feel comfortable. I will say this, though,

it got physical and I'll move along. And that was hard. But I kept doing my job, and I'm proud of my job. And once again, I was left on the island, and I hope that better days were ahead. And you can believe I've asked myself multiple times, like, why am I doing this? What's the point? why am I doing this to myself? I see these other people covering the NBA and yeah, those interviews are boring and those stories are boring, but they don't have to go through this. This is not worth it. This is not why I signed up for journalism school.

They never told me about this. You feel very, you feel disappointed in yourself. And so I moved on. In April of 2015, Rampage Jackson came back to the UFC and he was a upset at me. He didn't want to talk to me. And so I was told I couldn't interview him backstage. And I thought to myself, like, if this was another sport and someone was upset, you know, maybe they'd go to bat for me. Maybe someone would say, like, let's try to figure this out. But that didn't happen. They just brought someone else and do it. And I had to sit off in the side. And I said,

come on. You know, you know how embarrassing that is? You consider yourself the best. You're the employee. No one sticks up for you. I said, come on, man. No one's going to try to I helped me out. No one's going to try to... This set is my house. That's the way I view it. This is my set. I'm just going to have to walk off to the side in my city, no less. That's tough. Thankfully, we cleared the air and I think we're all good. But that bugged me. When the story about Travis Brown came out with his, I believe now ex-wife, I reached out to Travis many times to try to get the story from his perspective. I wanted to hear his side of the story. Reached out to him a bunch of times. And I finally got him to agree to come on the show. I believe it was in October of 2015.

And he asked me if he can speak to me off the record on the phone and told me his side of the story. I said, yes, sure, for sure, man. I want to give you a chance to tell your side of the story. I've always liked Travis. You know, I know he has a great relationship with his kids. I've always respected him. He told me his side of the story. And he said, okay, you know, I'm going say some of this. I'm going to say, not some of that, you know, we're going to do the interview and you can ask me whatever you want and this is what I'm going to say. And I said, great. And I said, you know, I'd like to also, if I'm going to talk about all this, do you mind if I address the Ronda Rousey rumors that you guys are a couple? And he said, I'm cool with that, but let me ask Ronda.

I said, great, go for it. He got back to me before the show. He said, I spoke to Ronda. We're all good. You can ask me about it. Wonderful. Remember, he comes on this show. and we talk about it. I asked him about the Ronda story. It was one or two questions at best, and it blows up into this whole thing, TMZ, all these people are writing about it. I spoke to Travis after the interview,

and I was like, I hope you're okay with that. I know it was tough, and he said, yeah, super happy, thank you for everything. Right before UFC193, I was told that Ronda's not going to speak to you. Rhonda's mad. I guess she was mad that one of the reporters on our site asked her about Travis on the conference call. She said she didn't want to talk about it. It wasn't a

direct question, but she was mad at the site. She was mad at me. And she wasn't going to speak to me for MMA fighting. We had a sit-down scheduled with her. That wasn't happening. And that was a major, and remember, this was Melbourne. It wasn't the deepest card of all time. We had agreed to go cover it. Me, Casey Esther, in Melbourne, even when it was Robbie Lawler versus Carlos Condit, now it was, you know, Joanna and Ron on the same card, we were definitely going, but I tried to get a sit down to really, you know, it's expensive to go to Melbourne, you know? There weren't a lot of outlets there, at least from the United States. And so the big selling point was we're going to get a sit down, one of those sit down interviews, 30 minutes or so with Rhonda. That was taken away.

Then I was told, right before my trip, I was told, yeah, and you're not going to talk to her for Fox either. So again, I'm going there. The biggest name in the sport, I can't talk to her. Why? What did I do? I reached out to people close to her. I reached out to Travis. I said, you told me this was okay. I would have never done it if it wasn't. I don't understand. Nothing. And I know in the past Rhonda has been upset because she thinks I made her wait. I don't know. I mean, I still have this on my desk right here. Ronda Rousey is in the house. I recognize Ronda Rousey is a megastar, arguably the biggest star still in our sport. I would never do something that she didn't want me to do.

I would never do something that would expose her or embarrass her. I specifically asked for permission beforehand, which is, by the way, something that you're told not to do. But I have that relationship with some of these fighters and I wanted to do that and I was told it was okay. I was then told that I'm in the penalty box, that I can't talk to her. So I'm going to fly to Melbourne and the biggest star in the sport won't talk to me. Won't talk to me in a scrum, won't talk to me in an interview, won't talk to

me on Fox and I have to sit, sit off to the side. You know how, how hurtful that is? You know how much that sucks to fly across the world to leave your family and to not be able to talk to the biggest star in the sport who's fighting in front of the biggest crowd ever. Do you know how much that hurts? What is I going to do? No one stood up for me. No one had my back. All by myself. Again, embarrassed. People ask me, where's your Ronda interview? I'm not going to talk about this. me, but it sucks. December of 2016, I'm actually on vacation, and MMA fighting reported that Anderson Silva said that UFC 196 wasn't happening in Brazil because of the economic problems there. And I was on vacation. I remember I was next to the pool and I just retweeted it.

I wasn't doing a lot of reporting. It was after the Orlando show on Fox and, sorry, did I say December of 2016? I should have said December of 2015, just to clarify. And so I retweeted it. And then a few, I guess a couple hours later, I got a tweet from Dana saying that I was full of SHIT and that I'm guilty of clickbait. Prior to that, other UFC employees said that we were clickbaiting. And I never really understood this idea that the UFC has that the media loves to clickbait, that we're responsible for clickbaiting.

Because to me, clickbaiting is, you know, Miley Cyrus has a new boyfriend, click here to find out. or you'll never guess what Rihanna did. Our headline was like our headline gave away the story. In my opinion, we did the exact opposite of clickbaiting. Like you could have seen that on your Twitter feed and not clicked on it. And they love to say like all you care about is, you know, clicks on your website and, you know, that you can make money. Well, I can assure you I don't make a single dollar off of a click on our website. There's nothing in my contract that states if we get X amount of hits, I'm going to make more money.

There's nothing in that. Not only that, even on this show, we get advertising all the time, and I just pass it off. I don't even make a cut of that. So you can imagine the bigger the show gets, the better advertising money you'll make, I don't even make a cut of that. I have a fixed contract. So when they say that you just want to make money off your website, I mean, to me, it's again, dump founding because that's like saying to someone who's the editor of the New York Times, all you care about is selling newspapers. Yeah, of course. That's like saying to the UFC, the The only reason why you put Brock Lester on that card is because you want to sell paper views. Of course.

This is America. That's how you make money. So yeah, do you think in the MMA media business we're there just to put on a website and no one click on it? I don't understand. And of course, a byproduct of people clicking on your website is advertising and things of that nature. That's how we have a staff.

So I didn't understand this whole clickbaiting thing. Like, what were we guilty of? Now, they said that we should have reached out, and I wholeheartedly agree. And I said that on Twitter. The headline could have been a little better, and we should have reached out. 100%. I have no problem admitting when we are wrong. Now, again, I'll reiterate as far as the scoops go, batting 1,000 still.

But you should always reach out to get the other side. That is professional courtesy. when a fighter says something like that, a statement like that, that may reflect poorly on the UFC or the country or the event, yeah, it's important to get that other side. And, you know, it's just, that's just the proper thing to do. So 100% that's professional courtesy. That's different than the Brock Lesnar's story. We should have done that. That's when I started to realize that the end was here.

By the way, quick side note, prior to UFC 184, I had been talking to agents for a lot. long time. And I never could find the right one. But I believe that it had come to a point where I needed an agent. And prior to UFC 184, I got a meeting with CAA, three agents in particular. And I hope they don't mind me mentioning their names, Nick Khan, Tom Young, and Matt Olson. And Nick in particular is a legend when it comes to broadcasting agents. I mean, his client roster is, without a doubt, the most impressive in this business. And Tom as well, and Matt is just an amazing guy. And I sat down with them and I recognized that these guys were people that I wanted in my corner, people that I wanted to help me, especially after the things

that happened along the way to me where I was on this island all by myself. And I told them that the Fox thing is going to come to an end. And at some point, this can't end well. I'm perhaps flying too close to the sun. So I need you. in my corner because there's enough signs out there that it's not going to end well. So I had them in my corner and I agree to be with them and to have them represent me. And that is one of the best decisions of my life. They've been very helpful throughout all of this. And I want to thank them publicly. Nick, Matt and Tom, very, very helpful. I really couldn't do any of this without them. So I appreciate them very much. And so I recognized that I needed that in my

my corner. When the clickbait thing happened, it kind of made a few headlines like, why is Dana talking to a Fox reporter about this? But to be honest, I saw him shortly thereafter. There were, there were no hard feelings. I didn't feel that at all. It was just a, you know, another little bump in the road. In January of 2016, I got word and I confirmed with multiple sources that Hafeldos Anjos was going to fight Connor McGregor at UFC 196. And I told him, people that, my bosses, and I was told that there was a big plan in place to break this news. So be a team player and sit on it. I said, fine. And it wasn't the first time, but, you know, I understood the relationship. I got it. I signed up for this. And I wanted to report this

on UFC tonight, but I got it. I understood. I sat on it. As you know, Jeremy Bauter was the first one to report it on Twitter and kudos to him. That may have changed the way they decided to break the news. They didn't go with their original plan. But, you know, again, I was told by some people, you know, maybe this isn't the right position for you. If you want to truly be a journalist and report things and don't feel comfortable playing this game of sitting on things, and maybe this isn't right for you. As you know, in 2016, one of the big stories of the year has been free agency. And I've talked about this on this show, and I've had Al Jermaine Sterling who re-signed with the UFC on this show talking about it.

I had Benson Henderson who signed with Bellator, Darren Caldwell. We've been talking about it because I think it's a very interesting story. No different, by the way, than me watching NBA coverage and seeing that Carmel Anthony might be leaving the Knicks to sign with the Chicago Bulls or all the coverage that I consume about Kevin Durant potentially signing with the Golden State Warriors. No different.

Not personal. Just guys trying to make money, advance their careers, and get what they're worth in their opinion. Well, Roy McDonald comes on this show and talks about how he was frustrated with the negotiations and he's going to go into his fight against Wonderboy Thompson on the last fight of his deal and then test the market, so to speak. And I can assure you I did not know that he was going to say this. Now, I will also say, had he told me this beforehand, I would have had no problem putting him on the show. But I will say, again, I did not know he was going to say this for whatever that's worth.

I thought it was a fascinating interview. Roy was opening up like never before, and I was going to ask follow-ups. I didn't think there was anything wrong with that. I was told shortly thereafter that the UFC wasn't happy with that and just the constant talk of free agency, Bellator, all this stuff. But the problem was I was never told not to do it.

The same way I was never told not to go to the Bellator Media Day, I decided at times I shouldn't do this or that, but I was never outright told by anyone not to do this or that. It was always like, hey, they're not happy. Hey, you know, I'm hearing this. But I was never told by anyone in a position of power not to do this or that. I can assure you of that. Around a couple of weeks later, or maybe it was like a week or so later, something like that.

I reported the UFC 200 main event in the works. Connor versus Nate Diaz, the rematch at 170 pounds. That was on a Friday. on Monday, so three days later, I was walking home and I got a call from my agent and I was told that I was officially fired from the pre-fight show, post-fight show way in show. I was told that, you know, no real reason given, but the UFC didn't want me involved in that anymore. And again, I never really went through them for anything, but, you know, like I explained to you earlier, that's their call, that's their show.

Again, I was relieved. I didn't really understand. I thought, of all the things I've done, of all the things I've said, of the MMA beat, this and that, this is what gets me, you know, what? That I talked to Rory, that I broke the news. I still never really got the answer, but, you know, we kind of put the pieces together there. And I know that Lorenzo Furtita likes to watch the MMA beat. He's told me this.

We did an interview about it. I know he sometimes watches this. He's a very smart businessman. So he keeps tabs on these things, more so than I think Dana. So he was probably seeing this stuff more. and I was told that, you know, this didn't make them happy. But I was told you're still on UFC Tonight, which was surprising to me because in the past, when this happened, UFC Tonight was gone. You know, it was a package deal.

And I didn't really quite believe it, but I said, okay, all right. If I'm being honest, I also kind of wished it was the opposite because there is something prestigious about being backstage doing those interviews, even though they're short, even though I wasn't getting the main event sometimes. it's a much more enjoyable job. And I never, by the way, went out just for those shows. Like, just very rarely did I just do an FS1 show. It was always FS1 and MMA fighting. And on top of that, I want to mention that I never, when I was going for MMA fighting, 99.99% of the time,

there were a couple times here or there where I went to Melbourne or Brazil, but 99.99% of the time, MMA fighting was paying for my flight, paying for my hotel, paying for everything else. It was just the fee to appear on TV. that I was getting, as I said, Fox UFC to me. I never wanted to do more.

I never wanted to do, I was going for those events just for, for, for, for, for, for, for fighting. So it was almost like I was doubling up. And if you remember back in the day, I was doing the interviews back to back. That worked for a while, but it was not sustainable and I understood that. MMA fighting couldn't have been more understanding with all this. They were paying for my hotel, my flight, but come Saturday, I was really giving Fox more of my time.

they were very understanding and I appreciate that. So I was told I was done from those and it was a bit of a relief. Around two hours later I got a call from a higher up official at Fox and I was told I was done from UFC Tonight as well that I was done from Fox altogether. And I said, you know, I said this specifically, if Jay Glazer reported something that the NFL didn't like, which has happened before, did he always run it by? Or does he always run it by the NFL? And I was told that that's true.

And I know that's not true. No one does that. But I was also told that it was the UFC's decision and they had to respect that. And I know there's contract negotiations involved. And I know that there's, you know, there's a relationship there. And look, if there's a contract negotiation and they want, you know, they want to re-up it, they're going to get rid of the thorn. They're not going to, I mean, I heard from a lot of people after.

this was all said and dead. I still haven't heard from some and that's fine. But I know that this is all bigger than me. You know? So we said goodbye. And again, it was a two-minute conversation. It was super quick. And that was that. And it was kind of symbolic of the entire run. So we said goodbye. And it was, I was like, all right, you know, this happens. I put out a little statement two days later. I came on this show and talked about it. And I said what I had to say, and it was fairly well received. You know, I didn't go through everything like I am now, but that was pretty much it. Now, this starts this thing where there's UFC Tonight happening, and people are waiting for me to out-scoop them. So the first time this happens, the UFC puts out an email saying

there's going to be some major breaking news on UFC tonight. This is my first time not on the show. about UFC 200. I already told you what the main event was. In fact, it just so happened, I had reported a bunch of those fights. Travis Brown fight, the Kelvin Gaslam fight, Gagar Musassia. Like, a lot of these fights were out there. So I put out there that, hey, just to remind you,

I believe this is going to be reported because they had told us that they're going to report it. So to me, it's like, all right, I'm just doing the job. I was also then given the heads up that this fight was almost done, a fight between Frankie Edgar and Josealdo. Wasn't sure if it was going to be a nice. announced on the card. I was just putting it out there. Again, it wasn't to try to ruin that show. I just had confirmed it. Well, they ended up putting it on the show, putting it out there. And now the stuff that they're putting out there is all from the UFC. They put it out there.

So people, you know, say it's confirmed. And they, like, oh, Ariel's messing with them. Again, now I'm back to just doing my thing. I don't have to sit on things anymore. The following week, they say, hey, we got big news about Misha Tate. All right. Well, now you just told me one half of the story. So should I sit there? and wait? Or, much like the UFC 200 thing, where there's a glaring opening spot, the journalist in me, the digger in me, maybe the pain in your butt in me, is going to try to go out and find it. You told me one half of the story, Misha Tate's got a fight announcement, let me try to see if I can find it. And I found it. There was a week or two where I didn't find it, but, you know,

from time to time, I was finding it. Other times, we reported on a Wednesday afternoon that Etzen Barbosa was fighting Gilbert Melendez. We reported that at one. They ended up putting that on the show. But we got the news at one. We confirmed it around one. And we put it. We didn't wait. Remember, we didn't wait till seven or eight for them. I'm not waiting. It's hard to confirm the stuff. But I know that news is being broken. I know that the UFC is now telling them information. So why wouldn't I go out and try to find it? And again, and they're saying that, you know, there's unethical practices being done here. They would take things from this show. and from this website like PVZ, page Vant, not fighting a 200 and not credit us.

We've always credited them. So what's professional and what's unethical? I ask you that. We exist too. It's not just you guys. And then I started to get word that the bosses at Fox and the UFC believe that there is a mole feeding me information. And now there's these poor employees at Fox who are being berated

and told that there is a mole in this company feeding information to me all of a sudden I'm the bad guy I'm public enemy number one why I'm the one who got let go you took money away from me you took money from my family

what did I do wrong you never told me the things that you accused me of and fired me for were never laid out as things that I couldn't do but yet I'm the bad guy now because I'm reporting things so now people are being told they're being told Ariel has told us

Ariel has told us that there's a mole giving him things. So now they're telling them lies to get them to fess up. Negotiation tactics. There is no mole. I said that to Dana White on Saturday. I'll say it again. To me, the fact that these people who I worked with for four and a half years can't wrap their head around the idea,

that I have sources, that I have people that I talk to, that I have people that trust me and respect me and talk to me on a day-to-day basis, who I've helped, who they've helped me, the fact that they can't wrap their head around that when I would tell them stories way before they were announced, to me is unbelievable. They think that there is a mole feeding me information. Can you believe that?

They are putting spies in different corners of the office in different sections and not telling, you know, the people what's coming and going because they think someone's feeding me information. They believe this. That to me is unbelievable. Stop berating those people. Stop trying to get them to fess up. There is nothing to fess up. Do you think that there's a singular person that knows all this information and is telling you it? You would know better than anyone that I have sources, that I know things.

It's not like I have these deep, dark secrets. It's what every insider does. I've been talking to these people for years. And I ask, and I dig, and I spend way too much time on this phone, if I'm being honest. I wish I could take this phone and throw it in the river. And I said it after the Nate Diaz interview. I hate that part of the job. But it's my role. If I could do this show every day. If I could do the Charlie Rose show, if I could do Roy Firestone up close, every day, I would be the happiest man in the world. You want me, I don't want to break this stuff all the time, but that's my role. I'm the insider now. You called me that. So I'm trying to break news. People come to me. They want to know the story. They want to know that when the UFC

puts out that Chris Seiborg is fighting, Germain, Derryndarnda, if it's true. They want to know this stuff. So I was getting information. And I know on Wednesdays, news is being broken, so I'm, I'm talking to people, but guess what? I'm breaking news Monday through Sunday, not just on Wednesday. Look at it. Look at the history. There's no mole. Stop it with that. They're claiming that they're feeding, and it's making it tougher because they're saying that they're like feeding fake information to people and things like that, so you've got to be careful, which is silly in my opinion. I don't want to have a problem with any of those people. They gave me an opportunity, and sure it didn't end on a great note, but I'm not, I'm not doing

anything maliciously. I'm just doing my job. Is, again, is Woj banned from the NBA draft because he puts out the results before they're announced? No, that's journalism. That's reporting. There's no difference here. There's no difference at all. And so they constantly believe this. I wish those people the best. And I guess, you know, the final straw was I was doing the Nate Diaz interview. And that was a big get. You know how hard it was. to get that interview, that's like getting a unicorn in your lap. Nate is the man, but it's hard to get him to agree. I was one of the last people to speak to him after his big win over Connor McGregor. And so I got him on that Wednesday, and we did that interview. And throughout all of this,

I had not heard from anyone really at the UFC. I mean, I had a good relationship with a lot of the staff there and the PR people, but, you know, the top dogs, if you will. And in the middle of that interview, I got a 702 call a couple of times and it was from Dana White. And I wasn't quite sure. It's like, do you want me to pick it up? Do you not want me to pick it up? Should I answer this on the air? I'm not really sure. I wasn't going to put him on the spot. But I wasn't sure like why I was being called in the middle of the show. And then I got a text saying a pretty mean thing to me from Dana White. And then I realized that, you know, for some reason he was upset with that interview when I thought it was one of Nate's best.

I thought on a random Wednesday, the world was talking about Nate Diaz and Connor McGregor. I think the world of both of those guys. I owe them a lot. Everyone was buzzing. I thought the fight was bigger. Nate said some very important things. A very important thing was happening in front of our eyes.

I didn't understand how this was a bad thing for the UFC again. I didn't understand. Was it bad that I was asking him about the two-year-old comment about being a not being a needle mover? No, to me, the question was, did you use that as motivation? I wasn't asking him, what do you think of that comment? I was asking him, did you use that as motivation?

Now here you are, slapping him on TV, mean mugging, flexing. Did you say, if someone tells me that I'm not a needle mover, that I don't count, that I'm not worthy of what I'm asking for, hell yeah, I'm going to use that as motivation. I've been using the last four and a half years as motivation. That's like the guy sitting in the draft room who came out of college and who said, you know, he said to himself, yeah, I wasn't picked in the top 10, wasn't picked in the top five,

I'm going to prove you wrong. How many times have we heard that? Paul Pierce, things like that. So yeah, I use it as motivation. That's all. That's all I was asking. I don't know if that's what made him so upset. I don't know.

But look, the deal has done. the fight is going to be gigantic. Everyone stands to win. But somehow I'm the bad guy because I asked these questions because I wasn't just going rah, rah, rah, ra, you know, this is the greatest day ever. I was asking, I guess, real questions. I don't even know what that means.

But I didn't respond. I didn't think there was any need to. I guess I knew how he felt at that point. And it was upsetting because I felt like the interview was universally praised. But again, we're coming. from two different perspectives. And so we get to $199.

And by the way, people have been asking me ever since the Fox thing happened, you know, do you think you're going to have your credentials revoked? And I said, no, I'm not doing anything unethical. I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not, I knew about the sale story before. I didn't report that.

I'm not doing, I'm not breaking any rules. I'm not being told that something's under embargo and doing it anyway, reporting it anyway. I'm not being told that something's off the record and doing it anyway, reporting it anyway. I'm just doing the job that is being done by every journalist out there, every great one out there, every sports journalist out there, every normal journalist out there, regardless of the beat. And so when people would ask me that, I was like, what?

You really think that that's going to happen? How could that happen? I even reached out to the UFC and said, you know, is it possible that this is going to happen? Like, is this a real thing? Is this a possibility? And I was told no. That is not being discussed. and I was told that if it was discussed or brought up or suggested that there were members of the UFC

that would, you know, argue back, stick up for me, fight against me. Now I know that there are some people in that company that don't like me for whatever reason, that aren't fans of mine for whatever reason, and I get it again because we're coming from different perspectives. But I think for the most part, there is a great mutual respect there from a lot of people. And I'd like to think I've helped grow the sport in the company to a degree with some of the interviews and things like that. So I was told that that wasn't going to be the case. So I kept applying. $199 comes.

Great event. Media Day on Thursday. Fantastic. Everyone couldn't be nicer. I can't stress this enough. There are a lot of great people behind the scenes there at that company. And there are some who, you know, I think walk on eggshells, but, you know, they have families and they do a really good job. And I hope it's not the last time I get to work.

work with them and see them. $199. Media Day was good. I even asked Dana White a question at the press conference and he responded to it. You know, he answered it. And I thought, okay, maybe this is a sign that we're getting back to normal. Friday was good. You know, they let us hang around at the way in.

The official one that, you know, wasn't in front of the cameras earlier in the day. And that was really cool. And some members of the staff were saying to me, you know, wow, you were on the Rich Eisen Show. That's really cool. congratulations. It was great. I really loved that event. And then Saturday happens and I break those two news stories and there we are getting escorted. And so that's really the whole story. That's everything that's happened. Now you know it all. And again, it took me an hour and 45 minutes to

tell this story, which is kind of crazy. But I wanted to be honest with you. You guys deserve that. A lot of people have gone to bad for me or have asked me, and I just want to say it all once and for all and then hopefully move on. But I don't want to move on from the fact that, look, I hate the fact that, you know, I'm now being branded as that guy who's banned. I hate that. I don't want that. I want to be there when Brock Lesser makes his return. I want to be there when Daniel Cormier fights John Jones. And by the way, that fight should be, that fight should be promoted as number one versus number two. hate the fact that Daniel Cormier isn't being considered the number two pound for pound fighter in the world. This is the only guy who went up away class and won against guys in their prime like Frank Meir and Josh Barnett and Roy Nelson. And then he went down because his friend was

the heavyweight champion, Kane Velasquez, and his only loss was to John Jones. And he beat guys like Anthony Johnson and Alexander Gustafin and Dan Henderson, who look is doing just fine for himself. That fight should be promoted as not only for the UFC Light Heavyweight title, that should be promoted as for the title of best fighter in the world, pound for pound, and they're missing the boat on that one, and they should run with that one, they can have that one. And I hate the fact that as of right this moment, I'm not welcome there.

For what? What did I do wrong? What rule did I break? You think in other sports, owners, GMs, PR people don't see eye to eye, of course, but they're always welcome at the end of the day. sure they may not get this access, that access, sure they may not get this interview or that interview, sure they may get the cold shoulder.

I could deal with all of that. But to not be welcome legitimately hurts my heart for the amount of time that I've put into this sport, this career, to be told by important people on Saturday that my career was over, to be told that they were going to do everything to ruin my career,

to be told that opportunities are no more, to be told that I'm no longer welcome. You know what that does? You know what that does to you? That's surreal to hear that. You're 33 and you put all your eggs in this basket and this one sport. And I can report on other sports too, but I love this game so much. I love this sport so much.

And to be told that it's over? For what? To me is unbelievable. It's unfathomable. They don't want to give me interviews, things like that. It's fine. And if I'm not welcome, I'm not welcome. please don't take it away from my other colleagues who've done nothing wrong, who are the best

at their crafts. I hope none of them are affected by this because they did nothing. It's 2016, guys. They don't deserve that. And I truly hope that maybe, you know, maybe I'll miss 200, 201, 2,01. Maybe I'll miss MSG. I don't know. I'm certainly not going to hang around. I don't think I'm going to do that. I haven't had a lot of time to process it, but I'm certainly not going to hang around in terms of like the hotels and things like that. I don't want to be where I'm not welcome. I don't want to be that guy. I just want to cover the sport like I always have. And, you know, I don't even step foot in the arenas. You realize that, right? Like, I'm sitting in the backstage area. I don't even step foot in the arenas. I never get to see the fights live. I'm just there

for the interviews and to report on the news and the press conferences. That's it because I love this stuff. I love the sport so much. There's nothing better than fight night, Saturday night, wherever we are, and all the, you know, there could be anything going on in the world. Nothing's more important than that. To those 24 fighters, I freaking love those guys, man. I love those women. I have the utmost respect for them, and I feel so strongly that they are the best athletes in the world and the best athletes to cover. And to think that I can't do that anymore at this age is a hard thing to do. suggest and someone would say to me like, well, why did you do that? A lot of people were saying like,

why did you leak the information? I didn't leak anything. I was never told, trust me, I've been told a lot of things off the record. I would never defy that trust. And I would never go on TV and tell you something wrong for someone else's best interest. You can assure that it's always the truth. I was never told that something was under embargo, that something was a lie. I was never told that. Excuse me, I never told that something was off the record, anything like that. I was just reporting the information that I had and I would do it all again because I don't think that I did anything wrong. At some point, you have to keep going and reporting and doing your job. At some point, you know, you have to grow up and I don't like being 33 years old and afraid of repercussions when I'm just doing my job.

Now, if I'm doing shady things, if I'm doing unethical things, then it's on me, but I'm not. You get what I'm saying? I love those, you know, those, those fight nights. I love a lot of the media. I love seeing them. We're a fraternity. And, you know, who knows?

Maybe this becomes a bigger thing. Maybe more people listen to this. Maybe, maybe this starts an MMA media association. And only because, you know, the only reason why in the past I've wanted an MMA media association is just to help others, you know. I love, I'm a part of this new house. mentorship program. Newhouse is a school I graduated from where I talked to a student and help them as they graduate. I love journalism. I love helping. You know, there's a lot of stories that I get

that I give to other colleagues. I want to be Steve Nash. I've done, I've gotten a lot. And sometimes there are stories that I want to break and interviews that I want to get, but I'm happy to be a part of this team. And I feel like I'm a team player. And I just want to help others along the way. And that's why I want, I don't want an association if we're going to be combative and, and raise a ruckus or things like that. I just feel like sometimes, you know, we talk a lot about a MMA fighter association. Well, maybe we should walk the walk as well and have each other's backs, because there is sometimes a little bit of this and that, snipping behind the scenes. And I don't think that that's good or healthy for anyone.

There could be healthy competition. That's normal. That's life. but maybe we should have a bit more of a understanding in a united front not just when it comes to these things and i really appreciate everyone in the mma media who has said something about this you know from kevin ioli who was the first guy to go out and stick his neck out for me and ask dana to credential me um i can't thank him enough i can't thank him enough for what he's done for me and writing the article that he did yesterday been folks my old friend uh writing the article that he did yesterday and many others as well. I can't thank them enough, honestly. And also the non-MMA media members, I can't. People that don't know me, but just understand that what is going on isn't

exactly right. I don't want this to happen to anyone else. I don't want anyone to be afraid. I don't want anyone to think twice when they have a story. I don't want people to come to me and say, like, man, I had that one and it was given to someone else. No, man, go go out and do your thing, report. That's what, you know, we're not doing it malicious. that's the part that I don't think they get. Yeah, sometimes, you know, I heard from a PR person yesterday and he said to me, yeah, sometimes I'm annoyed when the media gets it first, but I get it. It's part of the gig. It's almost like this cat and mouse game. But it's never to ruin anything. It's never to screw anyone up. It's never to hurt anyone. It's not personal. And so I hope that

perhaps all of this and doing these interviews and talking about it on this show will shed some light on what goes on. And I hope that there will be some change. And I hope that we could just go back to, you know, how it was. And, you know, maybe before the Fox thing, maybe I flew too close to the sun. And, you know, my wife asked me yesterday, do I regret it? I don't know. It was a great opportunity, but, you know, if I knew it was going to end like this, I maybe would have done things differently. It's hard to be told that your career is over when you don't think you did anything wrong. But I can assure you, I'm not going anywhere. Rich Eisen asked me earlier today, why don't you just leave? Why don't you just cover something else? And maybe that opportunity

will come and I would love it. But I'm not going anywhere. It's going to take a lot more to get to me without getting too in depth. My family, they were kicked out of their country and they made a new home for themselves in Canada. That's why I'm so proud to be Canadian. And they didn't pack down and they didn't raise me to back down. And so maybe this is the end of one chapter. But I hope that you will see a lot more of me. and I plan on being a part of this sport for a long time. Promoting the sport, reporting on the sport, loving the sport, talking about this sport, I could do it all day long.

They wanted to kick us out and silence us and they could do that from the events. But it's not personal. So yeah, Mark Freaking Hunt, the KFC King is fighting Brock Leicester at UFC 200. Good for that guy. that guy wanted that guy was going to get released and outlook at him that's amazing and i love that and you can bet i'll be talking about it there's nothing better than this sport and this job and i'm very proud of it i'm very proud of being a journalist i'm very proud of being a part of this sport and i i told my son oliver before i left today and he doesn't know what's going on

maybe one day he'll watch this and be proud i said he's four i said don't Don't ever let anyone push you around. Don't ever let anyone tell you can do something. You can do whatever you want. Live your dreams. And I'm living mine, and it was a dream, and I hope it will continue. And I hope that this can all be forgotten. This is not what I want.

Thank you for the support. Thank you for always giving me the motivation. Thank you for always having my mind. back. Thank you to my family and my wife and my kids and thank you to all the great fans of this sport and this website for allowing me to live my dream. And the words that you guys have shared with me over the last day or so has meant the world and it's just amazing to know when you know that you guys are on my side. I'm sorry that this wasn't the typical MMA hour. we'll be back next week with the normal show hopefully and everything will be back to normal

but i just wanted to share everything with you because i just wanted to be as open as possible and uh that's what i've always wanted to do with you guys to just talk about the truth report the truth like the great howard co-sell said tell it like it is and uh i will never be as good as him as talented as him, but I've always tried to tell it like it is. And I hope that you appreciate that. That is what happened here today. And I hope that you'll be following the coverage for many years and we can have fun together covering the sport and talking about this sport.

There's nothing I love more. So again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything. I hope that this doesn't become yesterday's news tomorrow, like so many of these stories. I don't want to bang the drum, but I just appreciate everyone. And, you know, thank you for always supporting this show and my work and my dreams, you know, since day one. I couldn't ask for anything more from the fans of the sport so many who I haven't met before. Your words mean the world to me, and I appreciate every single one of them. I'll see you next week.

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