The Birth of Helwani Show on ESPN
by Armaan Younis
Two weeks ago Ariel Helwani had his final episode of the MMA Hour and then moved to ESPN where ten days later he has his own show called Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show. It clashed with his former show the MMA Hour which is now taken over by Luke Thomas, probably starting a Monday Podcast War like the Monday Night Wars between WWE and WCW back in the day.
There was a lot of enthusiasm and excitement with what Ariel Helwani had to offer after moving to ESPN. When the show started there were a lot of complaints from the viewers who were experiencing buffering and poor video quality as the show was live only on Twitter with no live broadcast on YouTube. There was no rewind button so viewers who missed the beginning had to wait until the end of the show to be uploaded on different platforms including YouTube to catch up, and there was no pause button, so people (including me) had to stick with the show without taking a break. Finally the fighters Ariel Helwani was interviewing by video call on Skype couldn’t see Helwani.
Here are some highlights from the first episode of the Helwani Show:
UFC Light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier says after the fight against Stipe Miocic at UFC 226 he wants two more fights before he retires… Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones.
Rampage Jackson has confirmed that he will fight Wanderlei Silva on 29 September at the Bellator San Jose card.
UFC Strawweight champion Rose Namajunas says she don’t think there was any sincere apology regarding the bus incident and doesn’t believe the Instagram apology came directly from Conor McGregor.
Rashad Evans has called an end to his MMA career. The former UFC Light Heavyweight champion said he made that decision the moment he walked out of the cage after his loss to Anthony Smith at UFC 225.
The Black Beast Derrick Lewis says he deserves a title shot against the winner of Stipe vs DC if he KO Francis Ngannou at UFC 226.
Lyoto Machida said after he got the offer from Bellator, UFC gave him a new deal matching what Bellator had offered him. But since he gave his word to Scott Cocker he decided to join Bellator on a 6 fight deal.
Former Heavyweight champion Josh Barnett says that he approached the UFC about wanting out of his contract as he doesn’t trust USADA. He feels the UFC is not the same as it used to be and he wanted to take full control of his career which something he couldn’t do it at the UFC who are working together with USADA .
So basically it was the same old drink in a new bottle with a few glitches, but overall it is a new beginning for both Ariel Helwani and ESPN.
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