The Ben Mulroney Show - The latest bubble proofing example/Netflix ring journo Ariel Helwany

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

GUEST:  Ariel Helwany  /   MMA-Boxing Journalist / Host of The Ariel Helwani Show If you enjoyed the podcast, tell a friend! For more of the Ben Mulroney Show, subscribe to the podcast! ⁠⁠���⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://link.chtbl.com/bms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Also, on youtube -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@BenMulroneyShow⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Ben on Twitter/X at https://x.com/BenMulroney Insta: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠@benmulroneyshow⁠⁠⁠ Executive Producer:  Mike Drolet Reach out to Mike with story ideas or tips at [e-mail] Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by the National Payroll Institute, the leader for the payroll profession in Canada, setting the standard of professional excellence, delivering critical expertise, and providing resources that over 45,000 payroll professionals rely on. What does top talent really want? Do our tax research tools make us seem outdated? What does top talent really want? How can we stop losing people to our competitors? What does top talent really want? What if new grads don't want to work like it's 1999? With BlueJ, you can give your people the tools they need to succeed.

Tools that make it possible to go from tax question to client comms in minutes. Get better answers to tough questions. BlueJ. AI for tax experts. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. I should say welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. I should say welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. show on this 22nd of December, 2025. Happy Monday, Canada. Thank you so much for joining us.

All right, we want to talk about porch pirates. Porch pirates suck on the best of days. And around Christmas, they're the absolute worst human beings. We could leave it at just porch pirates sucks and then go on. No, but porch pirates suck at Christmas. Because you know that if you are stealing from people on their porches, there's a good chance you're taking a kid's Christmas present. You literally are the embodiment of the Grinch. That's what you're doing. So there's a special place in hell for people like you.

And there is video of, I mean, they're the worst. And if they ever get caught by the police, they're the dumbest. But they're not caught yet. We'll talk about that later. But there's video on December 1st. Surveillance video shows three suspects arriving in a dark SUV. I'm pretty sure it's a Ford. Looks like a Ford to me.

in South Burnaby, stealing packages from the front porch, and then they drive off. The thing is, they're so, they're either brazen or stupid, or both, because they just show up with big smiles on their faces, as if it's Christmas for them. It does look like Christmas for them. And they are run, and we say smiles on the faces,

because they're so stupid that they don't cover up. The one woman has pink hair in a ponytail, a very distinguishable jacket. Yeah, I mean, it looks, you don't just buy that. It looks like a high school. letter jacket or it looks like, I mean, it shouldn't be hard to find these people. And yet, we contact the RCMP and their response is, they were stunned. They were actually, we're actually stunned.

We haven't received any tips on this. No tips on them. Over the entire weekend. So, I mean, maybe they're geniuses. Maybe they're from a different place. But their faces are so out there for you to see. People have been caught with less to go on. And so, yeah, I don't know what it speaks to.

I don't know whether they literally drove in from a different area so no one knows them. But look, they're going wide with the pictures and the RC&P is on it. So that's a national thing. But shame on them. And here's hoping that the long arm of the law finds them wherever they are. And I'd like for them to get arrested on Christmas Eve. that's what I'd like that would make me

that would warm. That would warm the cockles of my heart. Yeah, I'd love it if Santa went and just picked them up. Yeah. Yeah. So here's hoping they do get caught

but well, yeah, I hope if you happen to stumble on their picture and you recognize them, do the right thing and call the RCMP because like I said, someone's Christmas

was probably altered because of that. Okay. We've now talked about it twice on the show today. And we talk about it all the time of government making announcements or governments saying our goal is X

and then not doing the basics to ensure that X becomes a reality we in this country have politicians that love making pronouncements they love they love the opening bell right they love it but all the hard work beyond that

they just they just don't seem to do in a way that gets us to the goal and when you hear this next story you're going to agree with my perspective. And if you don't, you're wrong. So there's a man, Jordan Conway, charged with manslaughter,

wanted on a Canada-wide warrant. And let's just listen to this global news report about this accused killer and where he was found. Accused killer, Jordan Conway, was arrested inside the former Howard Johnson Hotel. It's supposed to be in jail. He shouldn't be in housing.

Abdul Ghani Mohamed frustrated the 26-year-old suspect in the killing of his relative and fellow cab driver, 69-year-old Aden Herssey, was captured at a building the province purchased for $55 million in 2020. He shouldn't be staying in a SRO building. He's a danger to the community and it's a danger to everybody. So they should know that and should government have to think about that. Hersey was attacked in his taxi in 2022 and died in hospital more than a year later. Conway was charged with manslaughter in August 2024 and released on bail. Police allege he fled his recovery house in Abbotsford this past July.

A Canada-wide warrant had been issued for his arrest before the emergency response team moved into the Lugat. Okay, so let's recap. A guy attacks a cab driver. Cab driver dies of his injuries inevitably. This guy charged with manslaughter. He goes on the run. And for a certain amount of time, justice is denied. The cab driver and his family and those who knew him and loved him

and wanted to see his memory honored with justice in this case. And when they ultimately find the guy, he is staying in government housing. SRO, by the way, which was referenced in that piece, is single residence, residency occupancy, a single resident, single room occupancy. Okay. So the government of British Columbia purchased his former Howard Johnson Hotel in 2020. I have to assume it was a COVID situation. Yeah, for $55 million. For $55 million.

How the heck do you, does anybody gain access to a government building with where you're, allowed to live without showing ID. That's what they're asking. And I think that's a pretty simple question. And so the arrest has sparked criticism and questions about how a wanted suspect could stay in taxpayer-funded housing without being flagged. The province has ordered BC housing to investigate how Conway was able to stay there, in an area plagued by crime and disorder. It's slated for closing in June of next year.

How many times have we told a story like this where some level of government incompetence is then the justification is reverse engineered? It won't happen again. We're going to investigate. We talked about it in the city of Toronto where it feels like every department gets a mulligan, right? More than one. Every single department gets a mulligan. When the city of Toronto couldn't clear the snow, it won't happen again.

When it got too hot to open the pools, it won't happen again. When the city flood, it won't happen again. And while I appreciate that these are different departments, it's the same government. And we as taxpayers, there's only one taxpayer, which means you don't get a mulligan for the taxpayer. And to find out that a murderer was living in government subsidized housing for, I don't know how long, until they found him. like I'm sorry this is this is yet again another example of the government not knowing the government's gotten too big government writ large has gotten too big if you don't know what's happening in the departments of your of your government you're too big time to trim the fat

trying to bring time to bring accountability back and to simply say we're going to investigate no no no no no no when you set up this program you should have had checks and balances in place to ensure that crap like this doesn't happen. How do you do that? How do you come out? You're saying, you know what? We see a problem. So we're going to spend millions of taxpayers dollars, millions of dollars.

Yeah. And look at this. And then do they think that the problem is solved? You can't just offer the housing without offering security. But yes, you can. I mean, I guess you can because it happens all the time. You can. And look, we had all of those problems with the liberal government under

Justin Trudeau, where they loved big announcements. Like, oh, we're going to arrive can. Right? We're going to be that first in the world because nobody's asking for this, but we're going to do it. And it's just ballooned in cost and cost and cost. What do they? Oh, we'll investigate.

The massive mines and automotive battery plant situation. Oh, the mines are going to be able to feed the battery plants. But then again, they don't say none of the mines are operational and will take 15 years to get up and running. Yeah. Again, and who knows if that's even happened. Everything from housing to immigration to our hospitals. We don't, you know, temporary foreign workers, refugee claimants. The safe injection site in Vancouver that Kevin Dahlgren from Portland visited.

Where there's no one working there. No one working there. It's essentially the 21st century version of a crack den that we paid for. Right? So, yeah, oh, we're going to make, you know, we're going to be the, the most enlightened people in the world when it comes to drugs. And then we don't do anything. And so I'm, I want 2026 to begin with a new level of accountability from all levels of government. No more Mulligans.

No mulligans in 2026. That's the mantra for 2026. I'm Ben Mulroney. Don't go anywhere. When we come back, another example of bubble wrapping our kids. I want to bang my head against the wall. Maybe I should get a helmet. Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use?

Is now really the right time to make the change? Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use? Is our tax research tool actually leaving us? Why are we paying for tax tools our team doesn't even use? Why does my team keep turning to search engines? stay ahead by giving your team a tax research tool they'll actually want to use. Get better answers to tough questions. BlueJ.

AI for tax experts. In the 70s, four young women were found dead. For nearly 50 years, their cases went cold. I'm Nancy Hicks, a senior crime reporter for Global News. In the season finale of Crime Beat, I share how investigators uncovered shocking evidence of a serial killer. and hear exclusive interviews with the killer's family. Listen to the full season of Crime Beat early and ad-free on Amazon music

by asking Alexa to play the podcast Crime Beat. Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And God, it feels like we got it into a time machine and went back to one of the most insane times that I remember. There is a, there's news coming out of Quebec that some Quebec schools are being told students may need to wear a hell. Helmets to play on plowed snow mounds during recess unless strict safety criteria are met. They want our kids to wear helmets when they play outside.

Now, listen, when I was a kid, I was, I went to a school, I've told you I hated my school. And they were irresponsible for leaving the swings operational in the winter. and I was swinging in the winter and I tried to jump off as kids do but there was condensation on the metal and my mittens got stuck and so as I jumped off I got flung backwards

and I landed you know how there's that groove where your feet drag well that turned into a puddle of ice I landed on the puddle of ice and for the better part of a couple of hours I could not feel my lower extremities and I was taking the hospital and my parents were told they were flying somewhere

they were told that I had lost sensation below the belt and they thought I was paralyzed and I eventually got my feeling back when they took my temperature and they did not take it orally so I knew everything would be fine however right after that they took the swings down this is not that

what I experienced was an oversight by the school it was carelessness by the school and so they this is not that people have been playing outside since before there was inside I think we can agree on that right I would but if you go to any

I mean I've my daughter's 13 I mean you've got the same age with your kids and stuff and you go to the playground you want the kids to go out on the swings you want them to go on the uneven like to be able to use that and you see parents all the time yelling don't do it you're going to fall you're going to fall

I've always been give it a try If you fall, you'll just get up. Listen, and when I was a little, little boy, my mom left me with my aunt. And my mom went off on an errand. My aunt took me to the park. And then about a little while later,

my aunt calls my mom. And the first words out of her mouth were, don't worry, the paramedics are on the way. I fell on my face, and that's what kids do. Now, I think about some of the things that the games that we played, because kids will be kids. Yeah. And terrifying.

So it's so dangerous. Just, you know, boys' rough housing. Yeah. It really stuff that you'd be like, wow. And stuff, if the parents ever saw it, they would freak out. Well, listen, the recommendations in Quebec come from the school boards, insurer not the provincial government following past snowpile injury incidents. Heavy requirements are that rules include limits on mound height and slope,

designated zones, daily inspections, and controls on how many kids can play. it once gave me a break. And there is pushback. The Premier says that this is impractical, arguing principles should decide what's reasonable. What this is, to me, is the bubble wrapping of our kids. This is, and the continued bubble wrapping of our kids, but this is not the beginning. This has been going on forever. The helicopter parents, right, they started emerging in the 80s and 90s, you know, having kids be scared of everything. But you think. think about it, it's generation to generation things change. Yeah.

I mean, we, when we were riding bikes as kids, no helmets. No. But now it's the kids. I have a helmet when I ride my bike now. I had not gone skiing in close to 20 years when I had to do something for work. Yeah. So I went skiing for the first time in 20 years and I was mandated to wear a helmet. I was like, oh, this is new.

And I put it on and I start going down the hill. And all I could think to myself is, of course I should be wearing a helmet. Yeah. This is insane. Back in the day when I was, my mom had to. sent me in a taxi. The mom's in the neighborhood rented a taxi every day and the taxi would take all of us to school because we went to a school that was a little far away. And there was not enough room in the taxi for me to have my own seat, you know where I used to sit in the back,

backpack. Have you ever been in like a rented limo and there's a, there's a, um, uh, there's a Kleenex box. Yeah, there's sort of a ledge. I sat there. Okay, like, there was crazy stuff that happened. We right sized it. We got, we got. We got it right. And then the pendulum has been swinging so far in the other direction. Well, you think about, like, children's seats, you know, car seats and stuff, which is just, they're everywhere now. And you have to have a car seat. You wouldn't think of driving around without your kid in a car seat.

Except. And my mom, when we first had, she said, oh, I can't believe you have these car seats. This is ridiculous. I'm like, this is just like 13 years ago. Yeah. And she goes, when we had you guys, we just put you in this little bundle. Yeah. And in the wheel well.

I'm like, oh, you mean the crumple zone of the car? Yeah. That sounds safe. Hey, look, but there was a push a few years ago to extend the use of car seats to 10 years old. Oh, that's... I know 10-year-olds, it's shave. And this idea, and I remember asking my sister, when I had my son says, like, hey, can I have your car seats? She's like, no, you can't.

I said, why not? She's like, they've expired. Yeah. I said, what the hell does that mean? They're like, four years old. It's like, yeah, but they've expired. You can't use them. I was like, that's insane.

Yeah. I said, the plastic is going to survive all of us. No, there's a big industry in it. Make no mistake. So think about how many of those are in landfill. Yeah. But what we have done is this, you know, from just a regular parenting where kids will be kids to helicopter parents and being afraid of anything that isn't inside your house. Hell, it's in the side of the house too.

We've got to baby proof your house because your child can kill themselves with anything in the house. So everything has to be babyproofed. And then we move from that to participation medals and trophy culture and everybody's a winner. But here's the thing, because we don't have much time left, but talking about there's, you think about all these different things that we did and all things we continue to do. But the research from just the last decade or so, they've been documenting the psychological impact on kids. And they found that kids are less able to navigate challenges. They can't cope with setbacks or develop independence.

So those kids now, because we are helicopter parenting them to death, they're the ones who are going online and screaming about things that they can't handle anything. Every time you see a person of a certain generation screaming because they don't like the outcome of a law being passed or someone winning a presidential election. They scream because they have never been disappointed in their life. They don't know what that feeling is. And they've also been told that society is here. to bend to their will.

So even if they lose a soccer match, they're still a winner. And when they get that trophy. And they get that trophy. And when there's no trophy to be given, they don't know what that feeling is. They don't know what the feeling is to be either hurt emotionally or physically. And now we're trying to take all physical risk away from them.

The world is a dangerous, scary place. Nobody gets everything they want in life. Everybody gets hurt. Everybody gets injured. And how you deal with it. And how you move forward is how you become a person who can then be a leader in the world, either in your own home, in your community, or larger than that. Everything that we have been doing as a society has been turning our children into

unresilient members of society. These are the people who don't listen because to listen means to, and to listen to the other side means to put yourself in a place to be uncomfortable. To be challenged means to be put in a place where you're uncomfortable. And we have created a world of comfort for kids. And those kids are now becoming adults. They have to learn somehow. You don't learn from just success.

You learn from failure. No, you don't. You never learn from success. The only thing, there's only a few people who are not even happy with winning the championship. There's only a few people who, after they win a championship, say, how could I have won that better? Right? That was messy. next time I want to win it cleaner.

You only learn from failure. I've told you, one of my great failures was in a startup that I started, and I learned so much and a lot of success that I've had since then was because I identified that as a cataclysmic failure on so many levels. And I would never have learned those things. I would never have been put in a position to then work with other startups. because once you know what a bad startup looks like, you can identify a good one.

There are very, very few entrepreneurs that do not have failures in their past. Yeah, and we want these kids to never experience failure. What's going to happen when the keys to the kingdom are handed to these kids and everybody else takes their retirement? I don't know what's going to happen.

They might all start crying, you know? Well, they kind of already do. Yeah, well, so bubble wrap your kids at your own peril because if you bubble wrap your kid I'm not going to bubble wrap mine and mine is going to eat yours for lunch Hey did you watch

the Jake Paul versus Anthony Joshua fight on Netflix It was a huge event First person to interview the fighters in the ring joins us next Welcome back to the Ben Mulroney show. And you may have been like one of the myriad people who was waiting with bated breath to tune in to Netflix sports on the weekend. and watch Jake Paul in the ring with Anthony Joshua.

And what a fight it was, not because it was a fight against two Titans, but because it ended in a way that I think a lot of people predicted. But you could argue that the winner of that fight was indeed Jake Paul, because he was also the promoter of the fight. And the amount of money that they are saying he left the ring with is impressive to say the least. But right after the fight, there was one gentleman with the microphone who spoke to both fighters. And that man is Ariel Halwani, and he's got roots in Canada. His heart is still in Canada.

And he joins us now. Ariel, welcome to the Ben Mulroney show. A real pleasure to have you on, my friend. Oh, Ben, it's my pleasure as well. Thank you so much for having me. I'm a fan of the show. I'm a fan of yours. I'm a fan of your fathers.

We have some mutual friends, but I won't play this. that geography game right now. It's an honor for me and I appreciate you having me. I'm so glad to have you. There's so much to get into. Before we get into Ariel Hawani, I want to talk about the fight. You know, I think it kind of ended the way Joshua

wanted it to end and he very eloquently talked about that with you after the fight. What did you think of, was this a real fight to you? Was this a, or was this a spectacle? Well, it was a real fight, and it was a spectacle.

When someone suggests to me that it's not a real fight, I laughed in their face because I was sitting there, and they were both punching each other, and as you know, in the end, it resulted the fight did in a broken jaw for Jake Paul yet to have emergency surgery and all that stuff. So it's all very real. My take on it is the way you feel about the fight in the aftermath kind of depends on how you felt about it going into it. If you were expecting to see Ali Frazier, you were probably disappointed. But I knew what I was going to get when Jake Paul picked Anthony Joshua for his next opponent. He was biting off a lot. Jake Paul is a guy who walks around at around 200 pounds. He's a cruiserweight, and he's fighting a guy who usually fights at around 260 pounds.

Jesus. Two-time heavyweight champions, an Olympic gold medalist. He was biting off a lot. And I always knew that AJ was going to win. the big question was could Jake take his punch could he survive could he last longer than 30 seconds and my feeling was

you know Jake should earn a lot more respect yeah well we're going to talk about the Jake Paul of it in a moment but let's listen to a little bit of your post fight oh we're going to listen to a little bit your post fight interview with the victor anthony Joshua did he hurt you at any point

it looked like he connected a couple times at least did he hurt you and who were you surprised by that I refuse to get her I refuse to acknowledge getting her. I refuse to be beat. This is boxing. I'm going to get here. Yeah, I mean, he was eloquent to say the least.

I mean, that's a man who knows his way around the English language. He's a superstar. And you know what's interesting about AJ? I find him to be one of the most fascinating people in sports. He is a mega, mega star in the UK, but somewhat of an unknown commodity in North America. This was just his second pro fight in the United States, and his first was in 2019 in Madison Square Garden. He got knocked out in that fight.

So it's really interesting to see in the aftermath all the people on social media. And in particular, I must say women, who seem to be completely infatuated. And I can understand why he's well-spoken, it's very good-looking. He's built like a Greek god, like he said. He's been in the fight game. Like, he won the gold medal in 2012 in the London Olympics. He's been around the game of a very long time, but this was huge. for him because obviously being on Netflix

exposed them to a brand new audience. And that's what I want to talk about next because I think I would consider myself a casual boxing fan. And part of my attraction and whether or not I'm going to watch something is how easy it is for me to watch it. The fact that we are in this new era

of boxing on Netflix is I think I think it's going to lead to an explosion and interest in a way that we haven't seen in a very, very, very long time since perhaps the late 80s, early 90s in terms of the interest in boxing.

And if you look at it that way, and if you look at Jake Paul, not just as a boxer, but especially as a promoter, then he's doing something very methodical and he's doing something very calculated. The first fight was really a stunt when he fought Tyson. And that was also, I believe,

to test out the limitations of the technology of streaming this globally. And now that they fix that, now they start introducing the characters that they want to promote, right? And then who knows what the next one's going to be and the one after that. But it feels to me like this is something

that's being built methodically and deliberately so that boxing can ascend to where it once was. 100%. Because, you know, for the longest time in the 70s and 80s, boxing was on network television, on the ABCs and CBSes and NBCs of the world. And then it moved over to the showtimes and HBO's of the world.

and it had a great run. But right now, HBO doesn't, it hasn't for about six years. Showtime hasn't for about three years. And so the only place that you can really get great boxing coverage is the zone. And that's, you know, a very, very small platform compared to the previous homes for boxing. So for Netflix to now get into it, this was their fourth fight in a little over a year. Three of those promoted by Jake Paul, two of those that Paul actually competed in is huge for the sport. And the thing is, you know, a lot of people want to criticize Jake and call them,

you know, a fake boxer, whatever the case is, he doesn't, he's doing the one thing that I have been critical of other boxers in the past, which is he's giving back. The fight cards aren't just the Jake Paul fight cards. Witness the fact that when he fought against Mike Tyson back in November of 2024, the real stars of the show were the two women who fought in the co-main event, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. That was a legitimate world title fight. And it was so good, And it was watched by so many people, the next Netflix card, which was in July of this past year at MSG, was headlined by them. Yeah. There was no Jake Paul on that card.

And so that's the trickle-down effect. That's what you hope. You hope that people are hooked by Jake, but you hope that they are then introduced to these actual legitimate world championship fighters. And he's not just making the shows about himself. When Floyd was fighting, when Oscar was fighting towards the end of their careers, the cards were just built around them. Yeah. And what he has done over the past year or so has built up. other characters, and that's what's going to keep

the sport thriving on places like Netflix for years to come. And I think, you know, credit has to be given to him. He is making chess moves here. This is not something that you look at it. It is being done deliberately in by design. He is

trying to build his reputation as a promoter, and I think he's doing it successfully. And he is making out like a band doing so. And yes, it came at tremendous physical pain. that he's only now beginning to feel. But, you know, he can cry himself to sleep on his massive pile of money.

At last count, they're saying he made close to $100 million on this fight. It feels to me like that's the tip of the iceberg for the company that he's building. Yeah, and the thing is, he doesn't need the money. This is a guy who's still in his 20s who's doing just fine without getting punched in the face and having a broken jaw. He has multiple businesses. He's done very, very well for himself. before he ever even stepped foot in a boxing ring.

So I give him a lot of credit. Also, it wasn't like some matchmaker said, you must fight Anthony Joshua next. He picked Anthony Joshua. Yeah. He picked the biggest dog in the yard, which just how crazy it is that he actually took this fight. You saw the look on his face afterwards.

Like, he's smiling and, like, taking his tongue out after he just got blasted in the face. He was fired a little differently. Yeah. I know people want to hate others who, you know, have success and especially achieve that but he's not getting into trouble he's not getting arrested he's not ripping anyone off he's not scamming anyone he's he's going out there and he's living the american dream and he's training and he's doing everything he can to be the best

athlete that he can be it's a story unlike any other but i will also say people who say that this is a you know an example of how far boxing has fallen and whatnot that's complete hogwash in In 1975, Muhammad Ali fought a pro wrestler in Japan named Antonio Nochi. In 1976, George Foreman fought five total bums at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto after he fought Muhammad Ali in the rumble in the jungle. Spectacles, freak show fights, whatever you want to call them, have been a part of boxing for a century. It's never going to go away.

This is not a black eye on boxing. And those who say that completely don't have history of boxing. Well, and I'm so glad to have you with us. Don't go anywhere after the break more in conversation with Ariel Helwani, we're going to get to know the man behind the ring. Congratulations on a valiant effort. You succeeded way more than a lot of people had predicted going into this fight. Could I just ask simply, how are you feeling after that knockout?

Yeah, I'm feeling good. That was fun. I love this sport. I gave him my all. I see the smile on your face. You appear to be in good spirits. Usually when people lose a fight of this stature, they're upset. Why aren't you disappointed right now?

Man, I've already won in every single way in life. My family, my beautiful fiancé, Utah. This sport has helped me so much in my life. I think my jaw is broken, by the way, so. You're listening to the Ben Mulrooney Show. Welcome back to the Ben Mulrooney Show, and we are continuing our conversation with one of the preeminent voices in professional fighting, I said

MMA as well as boxing. Ariel Halwani is joining us. That was the voice of Ariel in the post-fight interview with Jake Paul following his swift dispatching from the world champion and just as he said himself,

self-described Greek god Anthony Joshua. Ariel, how much work do you have to put into those questions? I don't prepare much in advance to be honest because A, I want to watch the fight and react to it. And, you know, I grew up idolizing the guys who are in the ring, who are asking those questions. I was a kid growing up in Montreal, just watching all these

events, basketball, baseball, football, boxing, and say, like, wow, one day I want to be there. And I would also be very, very critical of the people who ask those questions. Like, I was looking up to those people rather than the athletes. And I would always get annoyed when I felt like they had pre-planned questions, when I felt like they weren't reacting to the moment. They weren't reacting to what was in front of them, but it clearly had things prepared an hour or two ago. So, you know, sometimes the best questions are the most simple ones. This guy just got knocked out. I just want to know first and foremost, how are you feeling?

How are you doing? And then we take it from there. You have to listen and ask proper flow-ups. Ariel, there are a lot of people, thousands of people who dream of getting to where you got. But you got there. So if I'm a young person who's interested in getting to sports media and I'm sitting down with you, what advice do you give me? as to how I can build a career,

what are the steps I would need to take so that one day I could be living my dream? Yeah, there's a lot of things that I would say. The first is, you know, dream big. There's no reason that I should be where I am today other than the fact that, you know, I've refused to give up. I've refused to let anyone tell me know

and dictate my life. Like I said, I'm from Montreal and I was in the ninth grade and I remember reading that Syracuse University was the best school in North America for sports broadcasting. And I told my parents, I want to go to Syracuse University. And you obviously have to have some support. And I had great support for my parents along the way. And I just, I looked at the landscape when I got there.

And I saw for the first time my life a bunch of other kids who had the same dream as me. They all wanted to be the next baseball, basketball, football guy. I love those sports, but I also love combat sports. And so I told my parents in 2001, hey, there's this thing called the UFC that at the time is eight years old. There's no guy. There's no voice there.

Why don't I try to be that guy? I want to be the Howard CoSell of that sport. And so I had a plan, and I just kept at it. And trust me, as you know, it's not easy. There's a lot of obstacles. There's a lot of ups and downs. There's a lot of times where you doubt yourself, you question yourself.

But I just, I've always felt like you only get one shot at life. And I don't want to be 80 years old. Yeah. wedding that I didn't go for it. And so I decided to go for it. And there were times where 100% it looked like it was not going to work out, but I just kept at it, kept at it. I looked at the landscape. I tried to be different. And along the way, you get some breaks. You try to make the most of those. And ultimately, refusing to give up and refusing to feel sorry for myself when the moments got tough, I think have taken me very far. When the cues is in the house,

oh my God, oh my God, when the cues is in that. All right. Let's talk about, let's talk about that moment in 2016 where you broke a story in the UFC and your credentials were ripped from you. And to me, that seemed like a really pivotal time, not just for you, but for MMA in general, because UFC was fighting for relevance and they were fighting to be taken seriously. You showed your journalistic integrity in that moment. Eventually, they reversed their decision. But I think ultimately that probably helped the sport to show that yes, the people who cover this sport have integrity and we're going to treat them

as such. Yeah, I mean, that's one of those moments that I'm talking about like that. That felt like a turning point and it could have broken me and if I allowed it to break me, I wouldn't be talking to you some nine years later. Luckily, I had developed

a great relationship with the fans with the audience and they weren't going to stand for it because trust me, if they were apathetic towards it, I would have remained banned, but they were so upset and offended by the fact that the UFC would do this simply because I broke a story and it had been building for quite some time

it wasn't just the one moment the Brock Lester story that everyone remembers it was months in the making the relationship was getting a little bit sour for lack of a better word they refused and really protested on my behalf and the UFC was forced to reverse their decision 48 hours later

they have banned other journalists and they never unband there was no real uproar over it. So luckily, you know, I grew up, I'm born in 1982, but like I said, I love journalism, I love journalists. I grew up idolizing the likes of Walter Cronkite. And I remember, you know, Walter Cronkite being known as the most trusted man in America, Uncle Walter, when he said something, people believed it. And I took that same approach to my work, even though I wasn't covering, you know, the serious news stuff. I wanted people to trust me, to believe in me, to know that when I said something,

it meant something and hopefully that you know goodwill had been built up to the point to where they felt like I was wrong they were going to have my back and I believe that if they didn't do that you know my my trajectory would have been much different what is your assessment of the health and the state of the UFC today well obviously they're doing very well they're in a much better place today than they were nine years ago um even three years ago they just signed back in September, a seven-year, $7.7 billion deal to be in business with Paramount Plus beginning in 2026. So they were on ESPN since 2019. Their deal was up in 25, and now they're moving to Paramount Plus. This is double a year, so they're getting $1.1 billion a year. This is double

than what they were getting on ESPN. So it's massive for them. Obviously, Paramount Plus is a bit of a smaller platform than ESPN, but financially they're doing incredibly well. The sport is a lot more mainstream than it was before they got to ESPN. And I even notice it, you know, when talking to my nephews, my nephews are in high school. And, you know, when I started covering the sport in 2001-02, high school kids, my friends weren't watching this. They didn't know who the fighters are. Now my nephews, all they want to do is talk to me about, you know, all the great stars

of the UFC. So it seems like the sport is getting more mainstream, getting younger, and it's up there with the big dogs. Yeah. With kids, it's even more popular than some of the other sports. So I think they're doing just fine. And ultimately now, what is your assessment of professional boxing today? Like we said, some big moves, I think, have made it more relevant. I think the Jake Paul of it all has been a net positive.

But what is your assessment of where boxing is today and where it's going to go in 2026? Well, I think boxing is actually doing just fine, to be honest. I think that there is a sentiment, especially from the older guard, when they say, hey, back in the day, he used to be on ABC, NBC, CBS, and look at it now. there's this sentiment that like it's fallen off. No, you know, as you know, media evolves, consumption evolves. But look at the paydays. I don't think those guys got $92 million, as has been reported.

It's probably half of that. But still, that's unbelievable. Yeah. There are big fights happening around the world. The UK consistently is hosting stadium fights, meaning 90,000 or so people in Wembley. It is a worldwide global sport. There are people like Anthony Joshua walking around, you know, the UK, Europe, Africa, who are global superstars.

It may not be as popular in the United States as it was in the 70s and 80s when Ali was fighting, but boxing is doing just fine. And every time someone wants to proclaim that boxing is dead, they couldn't be more wrong and more foolish. It's not going away. It's never going away. Ariel, lastly, in 30 seconds,

tell my listeners where they can find you. If they want to get more content from Ariel Helwani, where can they go? The Ariel Halwani show on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast, is the place to be, and I'm very proud of Uncrowned.com, the number one unbiased combat sports website on the planet. We have the best writing over there. Go check it out. We're in partnership with Yahoo Sports, and I'm very proud of it. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you

for speaking up on behalf of the Jewish people in Israel. As much as you do, it means more than you you know. And thank you for bringing some common sense to media and Canada. It is lacking right now, and I appreciate everything that you are doing and saying. Oh, my goodness. Ariel Helwani, a real pleasure. Hope to have you back on. Enjoy the holidays. 26. For free. Devil in disguise. For free. Tiffany Haddish goes off. We want to Africa. Building bombers. It's time for an update. Missletoe murders.

I haven't missed this. All for free. Stream the first episode of these great series and more free this holiday season on Stack TV. Restrictions apply.