Ariel Helwani

His father moved to Lebanon in his late teens, before he and his family moved to Montreal in 1967, while his mother and her family moved to the same Canadian city in 1973 because "it was starting to get increasingly Dangerous for Jews in Lebanon".

Helwani is the maternal nephew of David Saad, a judoka who competed in the men's lightweight event at the 1976 Summer Olympics, and Gad Saad, an evolutionary psychologist.

Helwani is fluent in English, French, and Hebrew, and understands Spanish and Arabic.

Helwani grew up in Montreal and Westmount, Quebec, and attended the Akiva School and Herzliah High School.

Ariel Jacob Helwani (Hebrew: אריאל יעקב חלוואני; born July 8, 1982) is a Canadian-American sports journalist, known for his coverage of mixed martial arts (MMA).

He is best known for his work at MMA Fighting, but has also worked for Fox and ESPN.

Having had an internship with HBO in early 2003, Helwani became a sports production assistant at the company in 2004.

In 2004, Helwani graduated from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications in Syracuse, New York.

While there, he hosted a sports radio show on the student-run WERW and received a summer internship with NBC covering the 2004 Summer Olympics, but had to withdraw due to an ankle injury.

Although he had encountered mixed martial arts (MMA) as a preteen, it was when he came across it again while attending university that he decided to pursue a career in it, knowing that his fellow classmates and future rivals in sports journalism would not be interested in the then-fringe sport.

Helwani has stated that he wanted to be the "Howard Cosell of MMA".

He credits his mother, "who [his] friends would always call for advice", for his interview skills, and his father, "who never gave an excuse or took a sick day", for his work ethic.

After a month-long stint at Spike TV, Helwani quit and founded his own website on October 19, 2007, JarryPark.com.

He stated that he starting building his network by messaging every fighter he could find on Myspace.

Helwani also worked for the websites MMA Rated, Versus.com (later NBCSports.com), and AOL's FanHouse.

He started working at MMA Fighting, after it was bought by AOL in 2009.

There, Helwani launched the weekly show The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani in June 2009, which he produced and hosted.

The dual audio and visual nature of the show was influenced by his love of The Howard Stern Show.

Helwani also hosted the website's The MMA Beat show on YouTube and co-hosted the Sirius XM radio show Fight Club.

He has won MMA Journalist of the Year at the World MMA Awards every year since 2010.

Ariel Helwani (given name Hebrew for "Lion of God"; surname Arabic for "Sweet Maker") was born to Mizrahi Jewish parents in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, as the youngest of four siblings.

His father is of Syrian lineage but was born and raised in Alexandria, Egypt, and his mother is from Beirut, Lebanon.

Helwani served as an "MMA Insider" for Fox Sports 1's weekly UFC Tonight show and other pre- and post-event programming from 2011.

He was fired from Fox in March 2016.

Helwani then revealed that his position on UFC Tonight came under the condition that his paycheck had to come from the UFC's parent company, Zuffa.

Calling it the biggest regret of his life, Helwani said he accepted the arrangement by viewing the money as coming from Fox and "filtered through" Zuffa.

According to Helwani, "they didn't like certain things I was talking about on my show, and for going to a Bellator media event. But they never told me not to go, or not talk about certain things. The people I was really mad at were the people at FOX, who just let the UFC dictate what they were doing and not standing up for me."

On June 4, 2016, Helwani and two of his MMA Fighting colleagues were escorted out of UFC 199 before the main event started.

Their press credentials were taken and they were banned for life from all UFC events.

UFC president Dana White announced that the ban would last "As long as I'm here."

and reputedly later added "[Helwani] can cover all the events he wants, he just can't have a credential".

Earlier in the day, Helwani had reported that Brock Lesnar would be returning at UFC 200, hours before the UFC announced it on the 199 broadcast.

UFC spokesman Dave Sholler said "professional standards dictate that journalists are to contact the UFC for comment before reporting a story", but that the scoop on Lesnar's return was not the sole reason for Helwani's removal.

UFC commentator Joe Rogan stated that he was told the UFC had asked Helwani to not report the news as they suspected he had a mole leaking information to him and, without knowing who it was, would fire all possible suspects if he did.

Through Twitter, Helwani called Rogan's story "100% inaccurate".

On an episode of The MMA Hour, Helwani detailed the incident in an emotional broadcast.

He said he was brought to see Dana White, who told him he was banned for being "too negative".

He later learned this decision was made by then-UFC CEO and Zuffa founder Lorenzo Fertitta.

Helwani stood by his decision to report the news in a timely manner.

The UFC's actions were widely criticized by journalists, and several high profile UFC fighters sympathized with Helwani, including Jon Jones and Chris Weidman, the latter of which said, "This sport needs the GOAT of MMA reporting".