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In the 48-minute sports media podcast, Ariel Helwani joins “The Main Event with Andrew Marchand.” Helwani, 42, decided at Syracuse he wanted to become the “Howard Cosell of MMA" and has used modern media to enact the plan. Here is what you need to know:
How Helwani’s career has been a dream mixed with some improbable lows
In 2001, at Syracuse, he decided to become an expert on the fledgling sport of MMA
How his parents and family history had such an impact on him in terms of dreaming big and never quitting
The NBA on NBC influence on him
He went to Syracuse after he found out Bob Costas and Marv Albert went there
How he needed his family’s help to do his first MMA show
Helwani quit his first job at Spike TV because he didn’t see an MMA future there, which his boss at the time said would ruin him
He had a deadline for his own website to succeed that he nearly missed
How, at 29, Fox Sports hired him to be the Jay Glazer of MMA in 2011
How the “MMA Hour” on Vox allowed him to do TV and grow on the internet, the first seeds of the future of sports media platforming
In 2015-16, the major paycheck mistake that Helwani still regrets
How he got fired by Fox Sports at UFC’s request
Helwani reacted by trying to break every story, like he was Woj or Schefter
UFC thought he had a mole inside the company and went to great lengths to try to prove it
How he had a close relationship with Dana White
White encouraging him to break stories and not worrying about the UFC PR folks
How White told him that UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta “put a bullet in his head and his career was over”
In June, 2016, Helwani has his UFC credentials yanked after breaking two big stories and it all gets very intense
The advice his agents, Nick Khan and Matt Olsen, gave him to get the word out … and he did after the incident
How Kahn and company got him into ESPN before ESPN-UFC’s deal
How Helwani said UFC went to ESPN’s top executives, Jimmy Pitaro and Burke Magnus, to back out at the Helwani contract
UFC would complain to Pitaro and ESPN about Helwani’s coverage, he said, but ESPN backed him
Why Helwani left ESPN
How he nearly stayed at ESPN to spite White, but he said he came to his senses
How he went back to Vox and Jim Bankoff, who was prescient how the ESPN tenure would unfold
How Bill Simmons and Ryan Spoon influenced the next stage of his multi-platform
How the Simmons, Pat McAfee, Dan Patrick, Dan Le Batard and Rich Eisen model works for him
How UTA’s Jerry Sibolwitz guided him through the next stage of being a multi-platform personality
How he ended up with Yahoo and Spoon
Helwani said he created 25 jobs with his new venture
How does it work with Helwani, Khan and White, who are under the TKO umbrella with WWE and UFC
Related Sports Media Podcasts
Jason McCourty: The blueprint to go from NFL player to media star
Fred Gaudelli: How a Hall of Fame producer changed sports TV
Bomani Jones and sports media’s gamble on its future
On-deck Tuesday: Marchand & Meterparel: Everybody Loves Sports Media
Sponsor: WSC Sports … Tell them Marchand sent you
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