Dan Le Batard Praises Ariel Helwani and Rips Dana White at the Same Time

Ariel Helwani’s fans finally learned of the combat sports journalist’s next stop on Tuesday. He announced he is partnering with Yahoo Sports, where he will create a new vertical devoted to covering the worlds of mixed martial arts, boxing and wrestling.

In a video posted on Twitter and Instagram, Helwani explained to his loyal viewers why he made the move.

“They met every single thing that I asked for, that I wanted, and then some,” Helwani said. “And I love this new era of Yahoo Sports. This isn’t your old grandaddy’s Yahoo Sports. This is a brand new era.”

“I have long admired the likes of Howard Stern, Pat McAfee, Dan Le Batard, Rich Eisen, Dan Patrick for many, many years,” he added. “These are the people that I look up to. And they built what I dream of building. And what they all have in common, among other things, is that they own their show. They own their content. And this is what I wanted.”

The 42-year-old Helwani has been a fixture on the MMA beat for 15 years, building a massive audience with his informative and revealing interviews. His traditional style of journalism hasn’t always been embraced, particularly by UFC president Dan White, who once banned Helwani from obtaining UFC media credentials.

Le Batard, one of Helwani’s idols, congratulated Helwani for his new venture during Wednesday’s episode of “The Dan Le Batard Show.” He also had some unflattering things to say about White.

“He really created something out of nothing,” Le Batard said of Helwani. “The sport in general climbed from the sewer to become a credible thing that people embrace, and Ariel Helwani is the most credible journalist in the entirety of the sport’s history and continues to grow.

“And the way that he did it, people could not possibly understand the degree of difficulty when you’ve got the most powerful man in the organization actively trying to chase you out of places but your information and your credibility is too good. Because Dana White doesn’t have any respect for the idea that his information can be journalistically covered. He wants to control all of the power in that situation.

“So he has been unspeakably foul to Helwani over the years, trying to derail his career, and (he) has failed. Failed to do it. And against his wishes, something emerged from all of that garbage to be more credible than all of that garbage. And I just couldn’t be happier for him as somebody who created his own thing.”

UFC media relations won’t be approving any credential requests from Le Batard anytime soon.

For combat sports fans, they now know where to go to find Helwani’s unbiased coverage.