Anyone else miss Ariel at these pressers?

[Cazador Diurno]

I mean i liked it better when he was around cause hed usually ask the sharp questions but its not like it was the HL of the event.

 

[Phill]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qmO99ZjpWTw

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3Vgp7PDbsRw

Weak reply. I watched the whole video and it's shit like; Ariel not handing over the microphone to James Tony. Asking Nate Diaz why he wasn't at a press conference. Asking Rampage if he thinks a fight should have been stopped. Mayweather feeling like Ariel is an MMA guy and not rooting for him. Asking Conor how he feels about Mendes replacing Aldo.

None of that is Ariel stirring the pot. It's a sport. He's a journalist. He's asking the tough questions. Just because the tough questions that we want answers to hurt some egos (mostly Dana's and a few select fighters), doesn't mean he's intentionally stirring the pot. Facts are facts and he's the #1 MMA Jounalist.

 

[Leonard Haid]

"I feel like 90% of the questions are almost pre-approved by the UFC in advance."
Some of them are just approved in advance as opposed to being pre-approved in advance, and a few are pre-approved after the press conference.

 

[TheBulge]

It was funny when Dana got mad at him. One great memory is when he asked something to Nick Diaz, instigating something and Dana flipped out. Ariel went "God forbid if I ask about that".

 

[RockyLockridge]

nope

 

[GlasgowKiss81]

Great contribution. I especially loved your reasoning.

Ariel is banned for a reason. He’s not a dude who will tow the company line in order to be “allowed” to cover the sport. He’s banned from covering UFC events on site and yet is still the biggest and most influential MMA journalist out there. That’s insane.

Totally, and it’s such a small time mentality from the UFC. It wants to grow and be treated like a main stream sport yet Dana and his cohorts behave like it’s a small far flung gestapo state that controls all of its media and doesn’t allow any dissenting voices to ask properly fair and challenging questions.

They might think they are protecting themselves by trying to block being forced to talk about some of the more ‘interesting’ subjects around the sport, but really by doing so, they probably do themselves more harm in terms of legitimising themselves

 

[CPH]

I liked and defended Ariel back when he pretended to care about MMA. Now that he has outed himself as nothing more than a wwe drama-craving casual, he is no one to me.

 

[HaulParris]

Ariel is far from perfect but the larger point stands - for all of it's chest-thumping about freedom if speech, UFC has always been blatantly censoring what fighters / coaches / cutmen / journalists say about the sport and the organization.

 

[ultra321]

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qmO99ZjpWTw

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3Vgp7PDbsRw

That video is not edited well... half the time you don't know what their upset about.. the rest are of he and Jackson... which Jackson is just as much the antagonist as Helwani is.

 

[ultra321]

Ariel is far from perfect but the larger point stands - for all of it's chest-thumping about freedom if speech, UFC has always been blatantly censoring what fighters / coaches / cutmen / journalists say about the sport and the organization.

all the big sports are doing that hell just a few years ago the Washington deadskins had to issue a public apology and take disciplinary action about what some third level assistant coaches wife said on facebook...

 

[BJ@LW&WW]

havent seen his face (until this thread) or heard his voice in months and would like to keep it that way. he gets the scoop on a lot of mma news but i find him very annoying and always remember many incidents where hes being a snake trying to get fighters to say things they dont want to say.

 

[Azure]

No.

This for me....I was never into the Ariel hate and was ok with him but I recently listened to a couple of his shows and he is annoying whinny and terrible all the time.

 

[BetoG695]

nope

 

[SmoothPies]

I've asked a few times what exactly these hard questions are and have never gotten an answer. Ariel asked things like "What's it like getting knocked out in front of your family?"

Watch the presser for Jones vs Gus 2, where Ariel asked Jones, Dana, and Gus about Jones' failed tests and how they know he is still clean. There's an example

 

[SmoothPies]

"I feel like 90% of the questions are almost pre-approved by the UFC in advance."
Some of them are just approved in advance as opposed to being pre-approved in advance, and a few are pre-approved after the press conference.

Lol touche sir.

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Watch the presser for Jones vs Gus 2, where Ariel asked Jones, Dana, and Gus about Jones' failed tests and how they know he is still clean. There's an example

So one cutting question also stirring up drama since Gus was there

 

[Noraaq]

No

 

[Hitdepruns]

No.

 

[SmoothPies]

So one cutting question also stirring up drama since Gus was there

That was a question no one else would ask but something everyone wanted to know. There are plenty of examples like that, but I doubt any you'd be satisfied with

 

[textwarrior]

There are some good MMA reporters/journalists among the herd, but the majority of these Dana White post-fight scrums are just brutal to watch.

I feel like 90% of the questions are almost pre-approved by the UFC in advance and are softball questions fo Dana. They start with "Dana, how excited are you for..." or "Dana, talk about the success of how much the UFC has grown..."

Ariel was the only one that consistently challenged Dana and asked hard questions that we wanted to hear the answers to

Ariel Bless.

I liked hearing him ask the questions no one else would ask.