News MMA Hour is back! Helwani back to MMAFighting/Vox Media

[Bubba32]

mmafighting and bt sport aint paying jack shit.

 

[Doughie99]

I thought ESPN's offer was a pay cut from his original deal? That would be complete opposite to thinking he's getting 1 million USD. The report was his ESPN salary was around 500k.

yes but I think Ariel probably *wanted* a large pay increase. That's kinda normal in my view. The 1million a year figure is just my guess as to what he wanted out of all these multiple new deals. It's just my speculation. I guess if ESPN were trying to cut his pay a bit then yes I can see him refusing that, and clearly they didn't agree and this is the result.

 

[Small Town Andrew]

I am guessing Ariel could make 6 figures on youtube alone. He gets so many views it's kinda crazy.

 

[bubbleboyjones]

yes but I think Ariel probably *wanted* a large pay increase. That's kinda normal in my view. The 1million a year figure is just my guess as to what he wanted out of all these multiple new deals. It's just my speculation. I guess if ESPN were trying to cut his pay a bit then yes I can see him refusing that, and clearly they didn't agree and this is the result.

Tough to say. If they didn't cut his salary and he still left then yes you would be correct but since they cut his salary then it's almost impossible to say if he would have stayed at the same rate(unless he says otherwise).

Cutting your salary cut is basically the biggest fuck you as an employee so people many times would leave their job. Imagine you are an accountant and your boss tells you instead of 100k you are going to make 85k. Vast majority of people are getting out of that job right away.

 

[ejlarson249]

Left ESPN so more money is the only reason why..

That's quite a statement considering there are dozens or more possible reasons. Lol.

 

[MMAProfessional]

Idk why everyone was saying Ariel's ESPN show was soooo good. It was terrible in comparison to the MMA Hour. I love Ariel talking to the other MMA Hour journalist and the fighters. Fighters can now swear and say whatever is on their mind, no BEEP.

Yeah him and DC had good chemistry but I preferred the interviews tbh. Also I liked the 3 hours shows which I'm guessing will come back.

 

[Kryptt]

 

[SakurabasEar]

Lol at vox media for hiring this goblin.


They'll regret this

 

[bubbleboyjones]

wow. From MMAFighting ....to ESPN for 3 years.... and now back to MMAFighting.

I guess there's always good value to not burning your bridges.
Sounds to me like he has pitched himself to all and sundry. BT Sport probably pay well, and he has got himself some kind of Spotify deal (and they're rich, as per the Rogan deal) and others too.

I'd like to know what money he was ATTEMPTING to get at ESPN for his contract renewal. I guess we're never gonna find that out.

I think Ariel is so valuable to them he almost can't burn bridges. The funny part of this was he was sabotaging MMAHour when he left by stealing guests last minute when Luke Thomas was hosting it. Thats basically the falling out with Luke Thomas and him. At the end of the day MMAFighting is so desperate at this point that they literally have no one with name value left that they are probably rolling the red carpet out for him.

 

[daltonames]

wow. From MMAFighting ....to ESPN for 3 years.... and now back to MMAFighting.

I guess there's always good value to not burning your bridges.
Sounds to me like he has pitched himself to all and sundry. BT Sport probably pay well, and he has got himself some kind of Spotify deal (and they're rich, as per the Rogan deal) and others too.

I'd like to know what money he was ATTEMPTING to get at ESPN for his contract renewal. I guess we're never gonna find that out.

Well it sounds like he's just doing the 1 show for MMAfighting, and he's basically kind of a freelancer. shrug.

Apparently ESPN is and has been cutting people's salaries like crazy. So it's not even that he asked for too much, it's that their best offer was I believe a 10% pay cut. Word was he was making 500K a year at ESPN, they offered him 450 to stay, and he left.

 

[daltonames]

I think Ariel is so valuable to them he almost can't burn bridges. The funny part of this was he was sabotaging MMAHour when he left by stealing guests last minute when Luke Thomas was hosting it. Thats basically the falling out with Luke Thomas and him. At the end of the day MMAFighting is so desperate at this point that they literally have no one with name value left that they are probably rolling the red carpet out for him.

Yea, having the MMA hour back will be a huge boost for them. They don't have anything else since he left that gets anywhere near the traffic or exposure as MMA Hour.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Seems butt hurt over espn offering him a paycut and took even less money somewhere else

 

[moosaev]

I think his agents pitched him to almost everyone.
My view is Ariel probably said " I want a million USD or more total revenue per year, go get whatever deals you can to make that happen for me".

Something like that.

CLIFFS:
- taking a break until approx mid-August to kinda rest and recuperate
- Back doing MMA hour show on MMAFighting from mid-August, TWICE per week show, using the old set
- working for BT sport on MMA and WWE and Boxing. Mini-docs, live shows, videos, etc.
- Podcast on Spotify (slash Ringer).
- Own youtube channel will be resurrected and he will be interviewing all kinds of people, nothing necessarily to do with sport. This is his attempt (my view) to do his version of the Joe Rogan Experience. And no doubt he has his eye on Spotify paying him big time in the future if this works well.
- Writing for SubStack (Pro) which will be behind a Paywall. Giving all his $ to a charity for first 12months and then obviously after that, he keeps his money

My view is he wanted a massive pay-rise from ESPN, thought he'd get it, they held firm and said "not happening" so this was Plan B. I think he will see which of these multiple new ventures is most personally profitable after 12months or so and then slim down from these 5 things to maybe a lower number.

Bottom line.... this is all about maxxing money for him.
He is starting multiple ventures, and prob after a year or two he will see which net the most $$$ for him, and which are just a lot of work/aggro and revise his "portfolio" at that point.

I think what he really wanted from ESPN was some kind of plan to transition him to NBA reporting on a semi-full time basis, and possibly put him on track to one day audition for a program as a talent ala Stephen A Smith. Ariel doesn't care about MMA, he wants to have an audience, he'd cover water polo if it brought him an audience and the kind of money he's looking for. This is a big set back from him.

 

[moosaev]

I am guessing Ariel could make 6 figures on youtube alone. He gets so many views it's kinda crazy.

you're over estimating how much money can be made on youtube. In order to make good money you need to have ~1M+ subscribers, at that point you can comfortably live off youtube paychecks.

 

[Char Jawz]

wow. From MMAFighting ....to ESPN for 3 years.... and now back to MMAFighting.

I guess there's always good value to not burning your bridges.
Sounds to me like he has pitched himself to all and sundry. BT Sport probably pay well, and he has got himself some kind of Spotify deal (and they're rich, as per the Rogan deal) and others too.

I'd like to know what money he was ATTEMPTING to get at ESPN for his contract renewal. I guess we're never gonna find that out.

I read that he was making 900k a year on his first deal and they wanted to cut 100k per year on the new deal and only give him 800k per year.

 

[Doughie99]

I think what he really wanted from ESPN was some kind of plan to transition him to NBA reporting on a semi-full time basis, and possibly put him on track to one day audition for a program as a talent ala Stephen A Smith. Ariel doesn't care about MMA, he wants to have an audience, he'd cover water polo if it brought him an audience and the kind of money he's looking for. This is a big set back from him.

I think you could be spot on with that.
He LOVES NBA and I can imagine that he used the MMA reporting as his "foot in the door at ESPN" and I think he probably wanted to slowly transition to be a full-time NBA reporter / broadcaster for ESPN.

My personal view is that I think he is actually quite unhappy that his ESPN journey came to an end.
He will say he's very excited about his new stuff and yes no doubt he is. But if he was totally honest I do believe that his dream was to STAY at ESPN and something went wrong. Prob the money thing but if it was his dream job, maybe just suck it up at a piffling 475k (approx) per year and work hard. I just don't believe this "Plan B" was his preferred intention at all. That's why it was a ....... "Plan B".

 

[MRT]

wow. From MMAFighting ....to ESPN for 3 years.... and now back to MMAFighting.

I guess there's always good value to not burning your bridges.
Sounds to me like he has pitched himself to all and sundry. BT Sport probably pay well, and he has got himself some kind of Spotify deal (and they're rich, as per the Rogan deal) and others too.

I'd like to know what money he was ATTEMPTING to get at ESPN for his contract renewal. I guess we're never gonna find that out.

Probably won't ever know...but ESPN's sudden cost cutting after awarding *ludicrous* deals to clowns like Stephen Smith, only to undercut someone like Helwani by offering a fraction of that amount (and allegedly a *pay cut* from his ~500k salary!?!), especially as MMA literally saved the day during the pandemic...well, ESPN should be embarrassed.

Thankfully, Ariel is taking this opportunity to stop only working for someone else and is doing a lot of his own things too. CLEARLY the money and control lies with independence, as countless people have demonstrated in recent years, and Helwani is certainly big enough at this point to do some things on his own.

 

[MRT]

Good for him, curious how this whole deal got set up with so many different companies

Ariel is the clear top dog in MMA coverage...the moment word broke of a split with ESPN, I am sure he was inundated with offers and opportunities.

 

[MRT]

I read that he was making 900k a year on his first deal and they wanted to cut 100k per year on the new deal and only give him 800k per year.

Really? Somewhere else, I thought I read it was closer to 500k and then they offered a small pay CUT. How ridiculous, if true, when you see what others are earning there.

 

[Mayonnaiseandjelly]

No clue why sherdoggers generally hate helwani. He’s a student of the sport and offers amazing insight, interviews and yes he pushes some comfort zones but that’s what journalism often does. He doesn’t have malicious intent and he advocates for the fighters. He’s solid