Ariel Helwani - The Best Ever? The Full UFC 199 Incident

I was going to write a serious piece looking at both sides of this argument and what is ethical and right, however after watching The MMA Hour I've decided to do it a little differently.

Ariel Helwani just gave the most emotional and raw show ever on The MMA Hour, if you haven't seen it yet then you must go and watch it. Ariel bares his feelings extremely clearly without any preventions. He talks about how Dana helped him out when he started and as he got better and made more links with fighters and influential people he managed to get more stories and became more popular. He also talks about his upbringing into journalism through his university and what his professors had taught him about the ethics of journalism. He seemed to be very affected and influenced by these teachings along with his own feelings and others on ethics and that he didn't do anything wrong.

During the podcast he also discussed how him and the UFC hadn't really seen eye to eye for a little while. Last year Ariel was fired from Fox with no apparent reason presented to Ariel himself or any of the media, it was suggested from several people that a potential reason could be Ariel backing and talking about free agency and UFC brass not liking it.

On the night of UFC 199 Ariel had released an article stating that Brock Lesnar was returning at UFC 200, he had also previously broken the news that Conor McGregor would be facing Nate Diaz at UFC 202. The UFC said that Ariel's reporting extended beyond the interests of journalism, i.e he was scooping the UFC's news before they could put it out to bring the attention on him. Now it's time for a bit of opinion, that's bullshit Ariel is a reporter and he can release any information if he wants to, now obviously he doesn't because sometime it isn't ethical. The UFC got annoyed because they had a big promo to unveil the Lesnar return at 200 so they banned Ariel in ridiculous fashion, I understand that the UFC is a private company and has the right to keep their information but if you let a top journalist like Ariel Helwani in you can't limit or prevent the information he puts out.

Ariel revealed that just prior to the main event a PR person came to him and said Dana wants to talk to you in the back, he said he wants to watch the main event first, then a higher level PR person came to him and said Dana wants to speak to you in the back, to which Ariel said well I'm only coming if I can bring a colleague. When Ariel got to that back Dana said you're done, get out of here you're finished, told him to go work for Bellator. Ariel protested his innocence saying he did nothing wrong. Dana then said some horrible things to him which he would not release, which is saying something after Dana told him that Lorenzo hates him and he was the one who got Ariel fired from Fox and Lorenzo said he's had enough of him and that he was banned for life. Ariel and his team was then escorted from the building and they never got to see Michael Bisping knock out Luke Rockhold in round 1 and realise his dream.

I personally went to Ariel's twitter after Bisping won and I calmed down to see what he had said about the main event and I thought it was a little weird that he'd said nothing about it but I didn't think anything of it. Then he posted to twitter to say that he was removed from the building and his credentials were removed, at first I thought it was a joke but then other people started posting about it and he said his team was also escorted out and he went on with emotional tweets about his time in the sport. It broke my heart to see the best journalist in our sport like this and very angry, I wasn't the only one. Twitter blew up with support for MMAFighting, Ariel and his team with #FreeAriel and #FreeHelwani trending with lots of people very angry at the UFC and some even saying they'd cancelled their fight pass subscription.

After the outrage on Twitter and overwhelming public support Ariel and his team's lifeban lasted a few days and the UFC lifted the ban and released this statement,

The UFC lifted the ban and released this statement a few hours after The MMA Hour went out where Ariel revealed the whole truth about the whole incident and revealed the bullshit scummy moves that the UFC were pulling and trying to keep everything out of the media but the fans and Ariel exposed them for what they were doing. MMA Fighting also released a statement saying they disagreed with the highlighted sentence but they were glad they'd manage to work everything out.

The MMA Genius team were firmly behind Ariel and were vocally tweeting our opinion and support for Ariel, his team and MMA Fighting. We're very glad to be able to read and listen to Ariel's work again and that justice has been served.

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NEW UFC 200 FIGHT!! HE'S BACK!!

Last night at UFC 199 in a turn that almost no one saw coming, a UFC 200 Promo was released and yeah it looked good but it's just a average promo. BUT THEN "CAN YOU SEE ME NOW?!"... Brock Lesnar has returned. Lesnar is back for what we think is 1 fight only and they pay day will be huge! Brock Lesnar's MMA record is 5-3 but it doesn't really matter... because he's a world superstar and an absolute monster, good move UFC! On July 9th at The T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas UFC 200 the beast returns and the match up IS INCREDIBLE!

Lesnar will fight "The Super Samoan" Mark Hunt, this is such a good match up and I would argue it is even more exciting that the rumoured Fedor Emelianenko fight. The Fedor fight would be billed as the beast vs the greatest ever which at one point in time would've been true however we know that the Fedor of old is definitely not the current Fedor.

Mark Hunt brings the most exciting fight for Brock in the heavyweight division. The devastating one punch knockout power he so casually possesses is frighteningly exciting, I'm still not sure whether I prefer the Mark Hunt war style fights or the clean one punch knock outs and oh did I mention THE POTENTIAL OF A ONE PUNCH WALK OFF KNOCKOUT! The athleticism vs the power, the athleticism may be a little drug enhanced but we'll talk about that tomorrow.

Nevertheless this is a ridiculously exciting fight, an incredible return and an unpredictable result. With this fight now sliding into the co-main event slot it could be an insane hype fight to fuel the main event and I certainly can't wait for UFC 200.

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RIP Muhammad Ali, The Greatest Of All Time

It really does pain me to say that  on the third of June  we lost not only the greatest boxer of all time but one of the greatest human beings that will ever live. This is just my way of paying tribute to Muhammad Ali The Greatest Of All Time (GOAT). Firstly anyone who says they don't  know who the GOAT is then never speak to me again. Muhammad Ali was more than just a boxer he managed to inspire people around the world years after he retired. I remember way before I knew what kickboxing or MMA was when I was a little kid I would watch videos of his quotes and just sit there in awe. Now that I fight I will still listen to his speeches and the confidence and inspiration it gives me can not even be put in to words.

When I found out that he had sadly passed away I had to hold back the tears. Now I'm not usually the guy to get upset over famous people passing away, but Muhammad Ali was not your ordinary celebrity because there will never be an athlete who will touch nearly half as many lives as he has.
I know this was not the most well written tribute to Muhammad Ali it is just something I felt I had to do to show how much he helped me become the person I am today. So I thank him for everything that he did and not just in the ring but out side of it. He knew what he stood for and he was willing to accept what ever was thrown at him for as a result of his beliefs.

Muhammad Ali's legacy will always live on.

LUKE ROCKHOLD DOWN FOR 'THE COUNT'!!

What a phenomenal night UFC 199 was. The most important take away... we have a new UFC middleweight champion, and he's British. Michael 'The Count' Bisping knocked out the former champion Luke Rockhold in the first round. Yes, we have our first British UFC champion! Bisping also joins the ranks of fighters who have won The Ultimate Fighter and then go on the win UFC gold.

Luke was over extending on his jab, leaving his chin exposed while coming forward trying to pressure Bisping and you can see that Bisping identifies this pretty early. Bisping ended a lot of his combinations with a swinging left hook trying to find the exposed chin of Rockhold and missing largely but he cracked Rockhold with a big left hook that wobbled him then no more than 2 punches were needed to render Rockhold completely defenceless forcing Big John McCarthy to stop the fight.

In the post fight interview with Rogan, Rockhold basically said that he underestimated Bisping and was being too cocky, out of normal performance and that he wanted the immediate rematch. Will Souza ever get his shot? stay tuned and we'll find out.

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UFC 199: Fight Bonuses and Recap

An action packed night and a hell of a lot to talk about! But first let's get down to the money.

The man at the top of the card with a performance of the night bonus of $50,000 was Michael Bisping.

Bisping scored an incredible first round knockout of the former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold beating 11/2 odds, making a lot of loyal brits a lot of money and a little bonus for himself too. Well deserved and looking forward to his first defence, we'll speculate that in a later article, keep your eyes peeled on The MMA Genius twitter and facebook page. https://twitter.com/TheMMAGenius https://www.facebook.com/themmagenius/

The second performance of the night bonus was awarded to Dan Henderson with a phenomenal round 2 KO of Hector Lombard.

This fight was destined to end up with 1 man in a coffin and we weren't disappointed!! In what may have been Hendo's last fight as he indicated with Joe Rogan after the fight and at the press conference, what a way to go out. A legend in the MMA world at 45 years old with a great career and to potentially finish it with a performance of the night bonus 1 shot knockout of one of the toughest and most dangerous men at 185 with all his family there for the first time, it might be time for Hendo to hang the gloves up and take his seat in the hall of fame.

The fight of the night was a superb rock-em sock-em robot style fight and IT WAS THE FIRST FIGHT OF THE NIGHT!!

The UFC 199 card kicked off with an absolutely phenomenal war in the UFC Fight Pass Prelims, the first fight brought fireworks, plenty of significant strikes, a couple of knockdowns and a knockout in this 2 and a half round war. These men both earned themselves respect, notoriety and $50,000.

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UFC 199: PREDICTIONS!

This may be the first time that me and Jordan are taking a non-academic approach and we'll be taking a heart based approach. By this I mean that we're completely ignoring analysis, statistics and common sense and instead we're going with who we really want to win and think deserve to win.

Caleb's Predictions
Fight Pass Preliminaries

Polo Reyes                    by KO/TKO

Elvis Mutapcic              by Decision

Jonathan Wilson            by KO/TKO

Tom Breese                   by Submission

Preliminaries

Alex Caceres                  by Decision

Jessica Andrade             by Submission

Beneil Dariush                by Decision

Brian Ortega                   by Submission

Caleb and Jordan's Predictions

Main Card

Dustin Poirier                 by Decision

Hector Lombard              by KO/TKO

Max Holloway                by Decision

Right, so here's where it get's difficult I think most of us think that Cruz and Rockhold will retain and that Cruz vs Faber is the closer fight. But, ignoring everything, just because we want them to win we've got

Uriah Faber                    by Submission

Michael Bisping             by Decision

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Top 5: MMA Fighters To Never Get A UFC Title

For most MMA fighters to be called great they have to win that coveted UFC title. However, there are a selected few fighters who could retire now never achieving this and still become one of the greats. These are the top 5 fighters who I think deserve the recognition of 'great'.

5. Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone (29-7, 1 NC)

Last on the list but by no means least is the one and only cowboy. There is no way I could write this list without putting Cerrone on it. He is the definition of 'fight anyone, anywhere, anytime' Donald Cerrone is my favourite fighter because he doesn't care who he fights. One of my favourite fights of his is against Myles Jury where Jury failed to engage so Cerrone hit him with what he called 'fuck you kicks'. Although he lost his title fight against Rafael Dos Anjos he made no excuses when he was hit with a hard liver kick and said he couldn't get rid of his inner bitch and for that I respect him.

4. John 'The Magician' Dodson (18-7)

Dodson won the Ultimate Fighter season 14 at 135 pounds where he knocked out former bantamweight champion TJ Dillashaw. Since winning the tournament he went down to 125 pounds where he went undefeated apart from his 2 loses to the untouchable champion Demetrious 'Mighty Mouse' Johnson which prompted his move back up to the bantamweight division where he defeated his first opponent by TKO in the first round. We will be seeing him presented with a chance at the belt should his form continue at bantamweight.

3. Alexander 'The Mauler' Gustafsson (16-4)

Firstly, Alexander “the Mauler” Gustafsson has to be on this list because there are two very people who believe he is the UFC light heavyweight champion of the world and that is two of the judges. This is because he has fought for the title twice both times losing a split decision. Most of you will know what that means, but for those of you who don’t know a split decision is when out of the three judges one of them will scores the fight for “the Mauler”. I don’t believe he will ever win the title as long as Daniel Cormier or Jon Jones are the champions, however he will always be the number two or three contender.

2. Diego Sanchez (26-8)

Diego “the Dream” Sanchez has been in the UFC since winning the Ultimate Fighter season 1! Now I know he might not be everyone’s choice for this list, I have put him in because what you will all get to know about me through my future blogs I like the fighters who are fighters. He has been doing that in the UFC for over 11 years. Now I know that sounds stupid because they are all fighters. I mean when have you ever seen Diego not give it everything he has. For example, when he fought Gilbert Melendez. That was the craziest fight I have seen, he has not been on top form over the past few years. However, I do truly believe he is coming back with I predict a win over Joe Lauzon at UFC 200 by TKO victory in round two.

1. Michael 'The Count' Bisping (28-7)

It is impossible to have this discussion and not bring up ‘the count’. Michael Bisping has been a UFC top contender for the past ten years and every time he has come close to gaining a title shot, he has fallen at the last hurdle. However, looking back at the past ten years with hindsight as Bisping is quick to remind us most of his losses have come to PED (performance enhancing drug) users such as Chael Sonnen and Vitor Belfort. Despite his losses Bisping has always come back stronger and keep himself in the top 10 or even top 5, which is proof from his current win streak after the loss to current middleweight champion Luke Rockhold. I’m sure most of the MMA community will agree with me when I say after his win over Anderson Silva he deserves a rematch with Luke Rockhold giving him the shot he deserves for the UFC gold. Thankfully he has got it!! Honestly do I think he will win it I am not sure. For him to beat Luke Rockhold he will have to fight how he used to and that is putting on the pressure in the three rounds and not letting it get out of the first few rounds.

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