- Joined
- May 4, 2013
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I think Ariel Helwani gets a little to much respect around here. And I definitely think he gets severely overrated when most of you guys call him the best journalist in MMA. First of all, Brett Okamoto is hands down the best guy in the business. When it comes to professionalism, covering the things that matter, and understanding the sport itself Okamotto is miles ahead of Helwani. And I've said for many years that all the accolades Helwani has should belong to Okamoto. Brett would never have the problems Helwani has with Fox and The UFC. You know why? Because he conducts himself professionally and doesn't sabotage organization by putting out secret info and doesn't try to turn fighters against the company and doesn't instigate.
Which brings me to my next issue with Helwani: the guy is such a fucking trouble maker. I bet you that if you did to Ariel what typically does to fighters then he would be outraged and call you a rat or instigator. Yet he presents himself as a journalist but try's to ignite the fuel of hatred amongst fighters. Fighters always use to complain about how Ariel's line of questioning would be transparent in its' attempt to start trouble amongst certain fighters and get them to hate each other. Nowadays fighters don't even call him out for instigating because he simply does it all the time and he's been around for so long so it gets exhausting to point out; they just simply attribute it to Ariel being himself. Never once have I seen Brett Okamoto try to incite hate or anger between fighters. It's so fucking unprofessional of Ariel to do that.
Honestly I'm glad he's gone from fox. He didn't deserve that platform. It belonged to Okamoto, a man who's been quietly the best journalist in MMA for the last 5 years. The only reason Ariel is where he's at is because the UFC legitimized him and therefore fighter gave him access with interviews. If I were a fighter I would never give him an interview. He's such an exploitative hack who delights in drama and pretends to be concerned about fighters so that they can open up and tell him things.
One of the most sickening interviews I've ever seen is the one where Helwani interviews Weidman before his fight with Vitor. Helwani puts on a sad/concerned face and speaks with a caring tone when Weidman talks about family problems he's having. Weidman opens up even though he knows Helwani's faking his concern and simply acting like he cares so that Chris can continue to spill his guts about his personal problems. At one point Chris admits that he's about to cry and accurately points out to Helwani "I know you like this stuff". What an exploitative piece of shit. Ariel "cares" about Chris so mich yet he'll turn around and tell Rockhold something Chris said about him in order to get Rockhold angry so that he'll say something negative about chris and then he'll tell rockhold what Chris said and on and on it will go until both fighters hate each other.
Okamoto >Helwani
Which brings me to my next issue with Helwani: the guy is such a fucking trouble maker. I bet you that if you did to Ariel what typically does to fighters then he would be outraged and call you a rat or instigator. Yet he presents himself as a journalist but try's to ignite the fuel of hatred amongst fighters. Fighters always use to complain about how Ariel's line of questioning would be transparent in its' attempt to start trouble amongst certain fighters and get them to hate each other. Nowadays fighters don't even call him out for instigating because he simply does it all the time and he's been around for so long so it gets exhausting to point out; they just simply attribute it to Ariel being himself. Never once have I seen Brett Okamoto try to incite hate or anger between fighters. It's so fucking unprofessional of Ariel to do that.
Honestly I'm glad he's gone from fox. He didn't deserve that platform. It belonged to Okamoto, a man who's been quietly the best journalist in MMA for the last 5 years. The only reason Ariel is where he's at is because the UFC legitimized him and therefore fighter gave him access with interviews. If I were a fighter I would never give him an interview. He's such an exploitative hack who delights in drama and pretends to be concerned about fighters so that they can open up and tell him things.
One of the most sickening interviews I've ever seen is the one where Helwani interviews Weidman before his fight with Vitor. Helwani puts on a sad/concerned face and speaks with a caring tone when Weidman talks about family problems he's having. Weidman opens up even though he knows Helwani's faking his concern and simply acting like he cares so that Chris can continue to spill his guts about his personal problems. At one point Chris admits that he's about to cry and accurately points out to Helwani "I know you like this stuff". What an exploitative piece of shit. Ariel "cares" about Chris so mich yet he'll turn around and tell Rockhold something Chris said about him in order to get Rockhold angry so that he'll say something negative about chris and then he'll tell rockhold what Chris said and on and on it will go until both fighters hate each other.
Okamoto >Helwani
