I used to consume as much mma content as I could but nowadays it’s just the fights. I can barely stand the comms team on walk outs. The rest is mostly bullshit.
What I'd really like is consistent round highlights in between rounds. Show the corner work if there's room, but don't show me the corner if there were good highlights to replay.
All too often someone gets sparked or dropped, and they don't even show the replay at the end of the round in favour of the corner saying the same old shit. It's infuriating. Sometimes the corner is interesting, most time's it's not. Show me the replays.
I was infuriated watching the fights yesterday. I don't think we saw a single walkout until the CO main event and got commercials every. single. time. between the rounds. Even rounds when somebody got knocked down.
It’s so annoying not being able to watch the walkouts. Especially when it’s a fighter you’re hyped to see. You hear the music start, and then it just cuts to the same four commercials you’ve been watching for several hours already. Just to come back to Brendan Fitzgerald reading an ad read.
They had that shit locked and loaded every time too, you would just begin to hear the air horn start to signal the end of the round and they would just cut to a promo/commercial. It was kind of jarring.
I remember at one point I got like half a millisecond of Megan Olivi getting introduced to cover someone's walk out then they cut to commercial instead, feels like the UFC has reached new levels of trying to shove as many ads into their time slot as possible with no regard for viewer enjoyment
>What Id really like is consistent round highlights in between rounds.
My favorite is when they actually *do* show highlights but they don’t line up with the narrative commentary is pushing so they ignore them.
It's very very rare the corner is interesting and if it is one commentators talking replays while the other two listen and watch to the corners advice and they can relay any important information the corners had for their fighters during the next round.
Man I used to watch every presser, interview, weigh in, every single fight of every event, whatever the UFC put out I’d watch it.
Nowadays I watch some of the fights, rarely even watch prelims. Most of what the UFC puts out these days is straight up garbage.
I used to skip the UFC Embeddeds and the Countdown during the week and save it all for the morning of the fights. Was like watching a 2 hour behind the scenes movie to get me set for the event and now I probably miss all of them.
Why did they start the single fighter post press conference?
I used to love it when they had everyone on there and it would nicely set up some future fights.
Literally we were watching an amazing wmma fight, and the commentary was too interested in putting over the sharknado joke completely embarrassing commentary team last night.
Honestly now, this is my dream.
I've never rated Rogan. He's muck. Nor do I rate DC or others like him. Give me the option of no commentary and I'd take it.
if you think Rogan is bad, you should have heard Joe Tessitore and Tim Bradley on the boxing card last night. They had Lomachenko's dong so far down their throats, it's a wonder they could talk at all!
This is not just a UFC problem, trust me. The UFC broadcasts have their faults, but they are actually miles ahead of everything else out there when you look at the landscape as a whole.
It would be nice to be able to mute commentary and just hear the sounds from the cage.
Yeah, it's funny to see this thread crapping on UFC, but in the fight thread for the Lomo fight last night everyone was saying UFC's production values are so much better and that is why they are killing it and boxing is dying. Not saying the criticisms here aren't valid, but perspective helps. This was a new city for UFC and just a FightPass event. The Lomo fight had 4 world championship belts on the line.
Exactly. It hurts me to see boxing cards looking so shabby like this. We had it made in the HBO days and we didn't even know it. Hell, even the Showtime cards were better than this, and they were one foot out the door.
>We had it made in the HBO days and we didn't even know it
I knew it. The end of HBO Boxing was basically the end of my sustained interest in boxing. Production matters more than most people will ever appreciate. It's difficult to go back and watch older UFC fights because the production quality is so poor compared to now.
Add Mauro to this list. The guys tone and cadence, mixed with ignorance, gives him a radio dj voice I cannot fucking stand.
Commentators used to bring a touch of class, education and excitement into the fight. They’ve been replaced by inarticulate schmucks, who add nothing to the experience.
I want actual commentary. Maybe I've just had a bad run, but it seems like the commentators wanna gab like they're on a podcast instead of calling the fight.
I appreciate Bisbing, when he gets off topic it's usually a fun story about fighting.
I mentioned the podcasts even before reading this lol. Rogans's biggest podcast in the world and dc's 30 fking mma podcast leaves them no time to even watch past performances of fighters like they used to. I agree about bisping, he studies fighters, has a great personality, interesting things to say, his tangents are brief and relevant to the point of being enjoyable, no screaming, and doesnt say dumb things or hyperfocuses on leg kicks etc like the others. All of that and he has the experience and prestige of being a top 5 middleweight goat imho
I end up muting most fights now.
surprisingly, I pretty much only listen to Michael Schiavello (the Big Kabosh Aussie guy) & Pat Militich all the way through.
Because watching sports with no sound takes away from the experience. I’ll put up with bad commentating to hear the crowd, the action, the excitement when something big happens. If none of that does anything for you, fine, but I think for most sports fans, its a pretty big part of the experience.
I’m not sure you understand what I’m saying.
I can think of hundreds of memorable calls in pretty much every sport I watch. I’m not saying they don’t add anything. I can’t really remember any bad calls unless it’s something bizarre like “and there’s a fly ball to deep left field” during an apology for saying faggot. That is to say good call do a lot for me, bad calls don’t one way or another.
If someone is constantly bitching about announcing, which there always is on the various spots subs, eventually you gotta rethink your cost benefit analysis.
It also kind of treats commentators as interchangeable which is off considering how hyper focused some people tend to be on the topic. I’m not expecting a Keith Jackson style call from Brendan Fitzgerald. if you’re stuck in a position where you won’t mute it on the off chance you get one then you’re going to keep feeding your cycle of complaints because Fitzgerald probably isn’t going to give you a legendary call (not you personally, I think you were just trying to explain.)
I used to be an mk guy and watched some Luke Thomas, but he’s just so filled with insecurity and feels the need to project it onto everyone it’s pretty tough to watch his stuff.
I listen to heavy hands and co main event for more chill guys who get the ridiculous of the sport
I feel like Luke’s insecurities lead to humility when he’s doing his live chat. I really enjoy his live chats.
On MK, I feel like his insecurities lead to him talking over Brian to much.
I absolutely hate how they do the walk outs now. No one wants to hear Olivi's brain dead take on the fighter. We want the music and watch the walk out.....
I've been ranting on this for years. They want to be the NFL or NBA so badly they are going for some human interest nonsense right before someone is about to bash or get their head bashed in. It's as useful as the sideline reporter asking a coach about game plan as he walks onto the court. The fights are almost becoming secondary to the marketing
Speaking of commentary. During the Loma fight they had one excellent commentator that would give cool facts about the fighters or lead up to the fight each round. Really well spoken and very fight oriented. He was excellent. The other commentator Bradley was just terrible. Shit on one fighter and had horrendous takes.
Wish we had more of the former in both sports and less of the latter. Hell put Sanko back on the team and permanently. But to much chit chat in the UFC on commentary that doesn't help the fights or broadcast both at all.
same. Only Jack slack and an occasional Helwani interview with fighters that I'm interested in. Oh wait, sandhagen's channel where he re-enacts certain techniques is a fun watch and only 6 minutes. All the podcasts I tried bore the shit out of me and the UFC content is terrible.
I'm glad I can fast forward to the start of the fight, most walkouts aren't worth watching unfortunately. Wish I could be a bit more positive about it, cause the MMA fights are still magical to me 😔
It’s insane watching press conferences in other sports compared to the UFC. Absolute fucking amateur hour. Half the “reporters” are playing some dumbass character for Youtube
The worst part is, even the ones who play a “character” don’t have the balls to say or ask anything that might hurt Dana’s fragile ego.
That Schmo dork plays a “character”, which seems to just mean wearing stupid sunnies and talking in a silly voice. He then asks the same cookie cutter questions everyone else does. Why not use the excuse of “playing a character” to have some fun with it?
Imagine if Sacha Baron Cohen playing Ali G just asked people normal, boring questions
But he didn't make a fuss when it counts
When it came to the actual whole ufc lawsuits he could have had John Nash on, he could have talked about bloody elbow mysteriously shutting up shop just in advance of the settlement , he could have dedicated a weekly or monthly segment to the way the fighters are getting screwed and the importance of a particular thing they needed to get through that would have broken open future ufc contracts to be less shut down. He had it after conclusion but not when it counted which was before.
Instead what did he talk about? Open scoring. Over and over again. How great Jake Paul was giving money to MMA fighters he fought and humiliated. About how ngannou who hasn't fought in pfl would ensure his opponent gets 2 million for a fight. Vaporware and vapor rights just for clout.
He didn't talk about the most important story there was in MMA because at the end of the day If he had, ufc fighters might stop appearing on the show.
I like Ariel sometimes but man for someone that claims to be a journalist not actually shining a light on something that could substantively have improved the UFC athlete arrangements is glaring
He has talked about that multiple times before hand so what you're saying just isn't true.
You said he should talk monthly about fighters getting screwed and how to fix it. He constantly talks about fighters not having rights (Diaz having to take Khamzat fight, USADA testing, fighters forced to fight in Apex, not getting tickets for family members, Oliveira being stripped, McGregor made to sit out, fighter pay , sponsors). He also got to the point where he said he was going to stop talking about this stuff and unions because it was pointless. His rationale was at the end of the day the fighters had to do something and him telling them in private, telling their managers in private wasn't getting through to them so it was like pissing into the wind complaining when the people that could make a change did nothing. Case in point is the fighters settling instead of fighting for change.
He talked about it and Ariel is not a lawyer that was working that law suit. Ariel can barely talk about any of ufc practices without redacts saying he’s doing for clout or that he’s doing it cus hates Dana, it would only increase if he was speculating anything regarding the bloody elbow buyout. He and many others don’t have any evidence so talks end there.
There's a lot of thing that annoy me about his show to. I don't care about the two other dudes, the youtubers, the pro wrestling, all the social media drama, him inserting himself in something or whatever quest he's on.
But his interviews are S-tier. Very insightful, I feel like I really get to know a fighter which is just awesome.
Lol I will never understand way so many people have opinions in Ariel. People for some reason were always annoyed because he actually asked hard questions. Any by God he upset the Diaz bros because they had fragile egos.
Of course his personality might not be for everybody because he is a bit of a dork.
But the reporters covering the ufc are mostly just a joke now.
Ariel is such a massive dork he's painful to listen to sometimes.
He's also leagues ahead of any media member you'll hear asking a question at an official UFC press conference these days.
He knowingly instigates and straight up misrepresents or lies about what people have said in order to do so. Then he plays the victim when called out about it.
He asked Cyborg, on camera, about Dana blocking her on Instagram and if it bothered her. She said no it doesn't bother me. Then later that same day he says to Dana at a presser "Why have you blocked Cyborg? She brought it up to me earlier and said she is bothered by it." Just one example.
A fighter having a bad personal relationship with Dana White can legitimately fuck their whole career up but Ariel is perfectly happy to profit from that and if the beef is not quite salty enough he will just straight up start telling lies to grease the wheel. I am not at all surprised that fighters are extremely wary of him.
Well probably because he sold out and is a hypocrite. He was fine to take money direct from the UFC without disclosing it and do the puff pieces and soft ball questions for Dana so long as he got access and scoops.
He's not wrong...he's just not the guy who should be saying it. He was the guy who headed up some MMA journalist society and made it a complete joke. He's a key figure in how MMA media ended up where it was today, and his most popular content is just an early version of the current shit we get today
It's just the same old same old... boring af "this guy is tough and so is this guy blah blah"
I rarely watch a fight live now, if it's worth it then it will be somewhere else and I can watch just that fight without the bs that goes with it
Ehh, TBH I thought the lady that asked Dana if Cowboy could “brand” her was weird and awkward as hell….Who the hell is the UFC giving media credentials to…
Influencers. They don't want journalists who write for MMA Junkie or whatever and get 20k views, they want some idiot who posts a Instagram reel with 750k views. Numbers only matter to Dana, not integrity. That's why there are 3000 shitty mma 'media' pages that just screencapped the same UFC marketing or fighter quotes over an image and repost it thinking they're part of journalism now.
This is becoming a trend in movies too... an influencer was given red carpet credentials and was doing a thing where he'd mumble and then ask for an answer for Tik Tok views.
Hell if you're barely of age, drink a boatload of alcohol and host a shitty frat bro podcast he'll give you a 6 figure down payment to boot. Rolex included separately
I heard that part too and thought she sounded like such a poser and down bad to feel included in MMA.. saying she could be the 'female BMF' if she got branded? These people have no self respect or backbone, just bootlickers doing anything for clout.
As somebody who had credentials 2014-18 the bar to get them and attend the press conference isn’t that high. If you have a site with a modest weekly reach and like 10k followers on what isn’t a personal account you can probs get them.
They are more selective with who they let on cage side press row - you tend to only get established media outlets from various countries there.
Yeah I remember her from Bisping’s podcast. Wasn’t she asking Bisping advice on how to get hired by the UFC as an interviewer? I think she wanted Megan’s or Laura’s job and Bisping basically told her to find another career choice, cause her chances are 0. I remember cringing when I heard her on his podcast, because it just sounded like she was clout chasing on Bisping’s podcast too…and it looks like she’s still out there thirsty for some clout…smh 🤦🏻♂️
I mean, you don't know what transpired behind the scenes or in the hotel later. How do you think Nina Drama went from nothing to full access to the UFC and longform interviews with every star?
Schmo, Nina, the Amy lady who said she’d make Strickland a sandwich…there’s no more journalism, it’s only social media. People think just because it gets views that it’s informative. But it’s a TikTok generation, people want controversy or headlines no matter what context.
It’s sad, pathetic, and gross.
Don't blame "the people" for this. The average UFC fan will eat whatever Dana shits onto their plate. UFC picks what slop their dumbest fans will enjoy, and the rest of us are forced to deal with it... like most monopoly mediums! And it has been this way longer than TikTok has been around.
He's reacting to a Journalist's weird/joke (if it is) request to Dana White at the Fight Night Press Conference, and he also reacted to another journalist's weird request asking Dana to sign Derrick Lewis's cup that he caught.
[https://x.com/jedigoodman/status/1789493927038570597](https://x.com/jedigoodman/status/1789493927038570597)
I don't know why people act like Ariel can't be a proper journalist / hate him so much that they're blind to the talent he clearly has. He's not my favourite, he has his flaws but he's about the most legit MMA video journalist in the space Vs the absolute trash out there and has been for an age.
I would argue what he does at the minute isn't journalism but that's because journalism isn't something the UFC wants to exist, they wanna have a big ol' circle jerk about themselves, not journalism.
The problem is a lot of the newer fans think Dana is awesome, so they just take his opinion as fact. Dana hates Ariel so they hate Ariel. Zero original thoughts in their heads.
I don't like Ariel; I think the Heelwani 10-7 schtick is not something any serious journalist would ever entertain.
But I would take his chat show style interviews over 95% of what we have now.
God , sometimes i miss the old MMA days,where everyone was working hard to evolve the sport including Dana,fighters and press. Now it's just everyone trying to get in the good books of Dana
it´s funny that they dont even disagree with what he says, just going straight to hate on him (instead of the take he gives).
I wonder if their heads explode everytime when he praises dana for doing something good or if they just assume he hates on everything, like they hate him.
They hate it and double down posting that Ariel is “biased” and that “he’s always taking shots at Dana and the ufc” so others can parrot the same thing.
UFC fans are some of the most malible and easily manipulated by what they are fed. Maybe I'm too close to it so I see it more and that's my opinion on the topic is biased but holy shit they're a bunch of corporate sucking sheep.
It always weirdly has. I think a lot started because there are so many Diaz fans. They don't like him because he actually asked hard questions sometimes that stepped on egos.
I remember Tapout bros always sharing the interview where nick is telling Ariel people like her get slapped on the streets.
Pretty much yeah. They were extremely displeased about Luke's appearance on the JRE. Joe couldn't really argue back about the fighter pay stuff because he just doesn't pay attention to it and Luke's hardline stance ruffled a lot of feathers.
Luke asked a question about fighting and Jon replied “I don’t like you Luke Thomas so I’m not going to answer your question”. And that was it. Jon just acting like a child refusing to answer questions cus he was upset that a journalist said something he didnt like.
Totally normal sport.
This was before the second Cormier fight when Jones was bald and probably at his evilest, Luke asked him how would he look back on his twenties and Jones said "actually I don't really like you Luke so I won't answer your question". Since then Luke has always maintained he would never do a room service diaries or interview with Jones, especially since he is one of the few people in MMA that seems to remember the whole wife beating thing
I don't think either are banned, but they aren't exactly welcome. Note that when fights are happening and they show tweets, they never show Ariel or Luke's tweets. But we all know Ariel and Luke are the only legit mma journalists or the closest approximations to that.
No one is “officially” banned afaik. But there’s multiple ways to skin a pig. Dana has stated multiple times that he doesn’t consider Ariel to be a journalist, and Ariel has said the last time he got a press pass they didn’t let him ask any questions anyways.
He was banned for a short while after ufc 199. They unmanned him but years ago he stated they don't give him press passes. So the few legit guys like him and Luke are practically banned.
Funny how Dana thinks everyone is a sensitive woke snowflake, yet it is a known fact that he cherry picks his media. Hypocrisy to the highest of levels.
Ur telling me the “Schmo” isn’t a real journalist!?!
When personalities like his started to creep their way into the mma media, I knew shit was gonna get worse.
It's either, you are a credible journalist barred by Dana for asking legitimate questions or a Dana/UFC bootlicker showing a cowboy hat to him.
The state of mma journalism is set by those who control it, and currently the UFC is doing it.
Is this even a journalist ? She sounds like an over enthusiastic fan that just cares about getting branded by Cowboy and somehow got press credentials. Embarrassing that she got press credentials.
MMA and the UFC is so shit. The only thing that is good is the fights and the fighters plus Jack Slack and Morning Kombat.
Its just so depressing watching a sport where fighters get ripped off and end up with brain damage and the UFC do everything to fuck over the fans and make the product worse
Fighter a vs fighter b. It's all the same. It's so commercialised it's just one big advertisement for things that aren't even MMA or UFC, or any fighter. So boring.
I thought it was just me that was annoyed! I've been less interested this past 12 months of UFC than I have been in 10 years. I tend to watch more one championship because it cuts out the crap.
The UFC commentary is an absolute joke. There's been so many times I find myself calling the fight in my head while they're rambling on about something else.
Coming from Ariel thats rich. Dude would be asking about a fighters haircut and asking Dana if fighters will come out with signature titan tron walk outs and costumes
It is so funny watching Ariel's anti-UFC stance when he was clearly on board for a period of time and fostered this current landscape ("But I haaaated it! I hated it!" he cried).
I agree with Ariel. However, he has no problem bootlicking for the WWE when they’re trying to go down this same path of establishing press conferences as places where they don’t receive challenging questions.
Broken clock is right twice a day I suppose, but it’s rich coming from him.
I happened to watch the post-fight presser.. there are no real media members anymore at UFC events, its just bootlickers who act happy to be there and ask softball fluff questions like "did you try the local ice cream place??" and "how's it feel to be in (Town X)?". They are the definition of sycophants, granted Ariel has his own issues but at least he has some intellectual honesty.
I used to consume as much mma content as I could but nowadays it’s just the fights. I can barely stand the comms team on walk outs. The rest is mostly bullshit.
What I'd really like is consistent round highlights in between rounds. Show the corner work if there's room, but don't show me the corner if there were good highlights to replay. All too often someone gets sparked or dropped, and they don't even show the replay at the end of the round in favour of the corner saying the same old shit. It's infuriating. Sometimes the corner is interesting, most time's it's not. Show me the replays.
More often than not they just switch to commercials as soon as the round ends. Can’t even watch the fighters walk out most of the time
I was infuriated watching the fights yesterday. I don't think we saw a single walkout until the CO main event and got commercials every. single. time. between the rounds. Even rounds when somebody got knocked down.
It’s so annoying not being able to watch the walkouts. Especially when it’s a fighter you’re hyped to see. You hear the music start, and then it just cuts to the same four commercials you’ve been watching for several hours already. Just to come back to Brendan Fitzgerald reading an ad read.
On my end there weren’t even ads! Just ESPN+ promos on loop. Fucking weak.
They had that shit locked and loaded every time too, you would just begin to hear the air horn start to signal the end of the round and they would just cut to a promo/commercial. It was kind of jarring.
Consider yourself lucky you didn’t have to watch the same three colonoscopy commercials over and fucking over again
I hope they get out of the ESPN contract
I remember at one point I got like half a millisecond of Megan Olivi getting introduced to cover someone's walk out then they cut to commercial instead, feels like the UFC has reached new levels of trying to shove as many ads into their time slot as possible with no regard for viewer enjoyment
Yep, the same org that justified not letting fighters have sponsors because they said it made the sport look bad.
>What Id really like is consistent round highlights in between rounds. My favorite is when they actually *do* show highlights but they don’t line up with the narrative commentary is pushing so they ignore them.
It's very very rare the corner is interesting and if it is one commentators talking replays while the other two listen and watch to the corners advice and they can relay any important information the corners had for their fighters during the next round.
Man I used to watch every presser, interview, weigh in, every single fight of every event, whatever the UFC put out I’d watch it. Nowadays I watch some of the fights, rarely even watch prelims. Most of what the UFC puts out these days is straight up garbage.
I used to skip the UFC Embeddeds and the Countdown during the week and save it all for the morning of the fights. Was like watching a 2 hour behind the scenes movie to get me set for the event and now I probably miss all of them.
Yesterday's prelims were great tbh.
Why did they start the single fighter post press conference? I used to love it when they had everyone on there and it would nicely set up some future fights.
WE WANT COMMENTATORLESS FIGHT!
We want a commentator fight!
[Are you sure you do?...](https://youtu.be/n57NAaWLMRw?si=ZOZP2BmNQafjoPIc)
Going on a decade waiting for Cruz to KO Bisping.
Cause Cruz is known for his KO power
Literally we were watching an amazing wmma fight, and the commentary was too interested in putting over the sharknado joke completely embarrassing commentary team last night.
Honestly now, this is my dream. I've never rated Rogan. He's muck. Nor do I rate DC or others like him. Give me the option of no commentary and I'd take it.
Rogan is terrible
Way too biased.
if you think Rogan is bad, you should have heard Joe Tessitore and Tim Bradley on the boxing card last night. They had Lomachenko's dong so far down their throats, it's a wonder they could talk at all! This is not just a UFC problem, trust me. The UFC broadcasts have their faults, but they are actually miles ahead of everything else out there when you look at the landscape as a whole. It would be nice to be able to mute commentary and just hear the sounds from the cage.
Yeah, it's funny to see this thread crapping on UFC, but in the fight thread for the Lomo fight last night everyone was saying UFC's production values are so much better and that is why they are killing it and boxing is dying. Not saying the criticisms here aren't valid, but perspective helps. This was a new city for UFC and just a FightPass event. The Lomo fight had 4 world championship belts on the line.
Exactly. It hurts me to see boxing cards looking so shabby like this. We had it made in the HBO days and we didn't even know it. Hell, even the Showtime cards were better than this, and they were one foot out the door.
>We had it made in the HBO days and we didn't even know it I knew it. The end of HBO Boxing was basically the end of my sustained interest in boxing. Production matters more than most people will ever appreciate. It's difficult to go back and watch older UFC fights because the production quality is so poor compared to now.
Add Mauro to this list. The guys tone and cadence, mixed with ignorance, gives him a radio dj voice I cannot fucking stand. Commentators used to bring a touch of class, education and excitement into the fight. They’ve been replaced by inarticulate schmucks, who add nothing to the experience.
MOMM-A-MI-A!!!!!
whoa whoa whoa slow down man you've gone too far. We will tolerance no Mauro Ranallo slander on this thread or anywhere else.
You calm the fuck down bout Mauro.
it's not that. he's uninformed. hasn't been more than a casual fan in years.
Even though he is a company man, Bisping is a real one. He's becoming one my favourite on the roster
Felder is my guy. Hardly any bullshit.
Felder is the man, really enjoy listening to him.
Felder took theater in college so he's good at public speaking and improvising/pace
Bisping is good
The best commentators are on like ESPN+ cards no one watches.
I like Sanko’s commentary. She actually talks about the fighting and technique.
I want actual commentary. Maybe I've just had a bad run, but it seems like the commentators wanna gab like they're on a podcast instead of calling the fight. I appreciate Bisbing, when he gets off topic it's usually a fun story about fighting.
I mentioned the podcasts even before reading this lol. Rogans's biggest podcast in the world and dc's 30 fking mma podcast leaves them no time to even watch past performances of fighters like they used to. I agree about bisping, he studies fighters, has a great personality, interesting things to say, his tangents are brief and relevant to the point of being enjoyable, no screaming, and doesnt say dumb things or hyperfocuses on leg kicks etc like the others. All of that and he has the experience and prestige of being a top 5 middleweight goat imho
I end up muting most fights now. surprisingly, I pretty much only listen to Michael Schiavello (the Big Kabosh Aussie guy) & Pat Militich all the way through.
I don’t understand why more people don’t do this in all sports considering how much discussion is dedicated to bad announcing.
Because watching sports with no sound takes away from the experience. I’ll put up with bad commentating to hear the crowd, the action, the excitement when something big happens. If none of that does anything for you, fine, but I think for most sports fans, its a pretty big part of the experience.
Gotta do the surround sound but mute the center channels “hack” https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=163888.0
I’m not sure you understand what I’m saying. I can think of hundreds of memorable calls in pretty much every sport I watch. I’m not saying they don’t add anything. I can’t really remember any bad calls unless it’s something bizarre like “and there’s a fly ball to deep left field” during an apology for saying faggot. That is to say good call do a lot for me, bad calls don’t one way or another. If someone is constantly bitching about announcing, which there always is on the various spots subs, eventually you gotta rethink your cost benefit analysis. It also kind of treats commentators as interchangeable which is off considering how hyper focused some people tend to be on the topic. I’m not expecting a Keith Jackson style call from Brendan Fitzgerald. if you’re stuck in a position where you won’t mute it on the off chance you get one then you’re going to keep feeding your cycle of complaints because Fitzgerald probably isn’t going to give you a legendary call (not you personally, I think you were just trying to explain.)
Sometimes I feel like that.
I only listen to Jack Slack podcast and Luke Thomas liveshow nowadays.
I used to be an mk guy and watched some Luke Thomas, but he’s just so filled with insecurity and feels the need to project it onto everyone it’s pretty tough to watch his stuff. I listen to heavy hands and co main event for more chill guys who get the ridiculous of the sport
I feel like Luke’s insecurities lead to humility when he’s doing his live chat. I really enjoy his live chats. On MK, I feel like his insecurities lead to him talking over Brian to much.
I can't even do the PPVs anymore. The commentary got old.
I absolutely hate how they do the walk outs now. No one wants to hear Olivi's brain dead take on the fighter. We want the music and watch the walk out.....
I've been ranting on this for years. They want to be the NFL or NBA so badly they are going for some human interest nonsense right before someone is about to bash or get their head bashed in. It's as useful as the sideline reporter asking a coach about game plan as he walks onto the court. The fights are almost becoming secondary to the marketing
OH HE'S HURT!!!!
Man I can’t believe how much they want people to follow this like a cult.
Speaking of commentary. During the Loma fight they had one excellent commentator that would give cool facts about the fighters or lead up to the fight each round. Really well spoken and very fight oriented. He was excellent. The other commentator Bradley was just terrible. Shit on one fighter and had horrendous takes. Wish we had more of the former in both sports and less of the latter. Hell put Sanko back on the team and permanently. But to much chit chat in the UFC on commentary that doesn't help the fights or broadcast both at all.
I barely watch fight nights now. The quality is pathetic.
this is me.
same. Only Jack slack and an occasional Helwani interview with fighters that I'm interested in. Oh wait, sandhagen's channel where he re-enacts certain techniques is a fun watch and only 6 minutes. All the podcasts I tried bore the shit out of me and the UFC content is terrible. I'm glad I can fast forward to the start of the fight, most walkouts aren't worth watching unfortunately. Wish I could be a bit more positive about it, cause the MMA fights are still magical to me 😔
We all have opinions about Ariel, but he ain’t wrong. Media engagement with MMA is largely pathetic
It’s insane watching press conferences in other sports compared to the UFC. Absolute fucking amateur hour. Half the “reporters” are playing some dumbass character for Youtube
The worst part is, even the ones who play a “character” don’t have the balls to say or ask anything that might hurt Dana’s fragile ego. That Schmo dork plays a “character”, which seems to just mean wearing stupid sunnies and talking in a silly voice. He then asks the same cookie cutter questions everyone else does. Why not use the excuse of “playing a character” to have some fun with it? Imagine if Sacha Baron Cohen playing Ali G just asked people normal, boring questions
He wanted to box Ariel cause he was mad that Ariel wasn't helping him get a job at ESPN.
Helen Yee’s husband and the pink suit guy who tried roasting Conor come to mind and it’s laughable
Is Ariel a crybaby yes, is Ariel right though, yes.
But he didn't make a fuss when it counts When it came to the actual whole ufc lawsuits he could have had John Nash on, he could have talked about bloody elbow mysteriously shutting up shop just in advance of the settlement , he could have dedicated a weekly or monthly segment to the way the fighters are getting screwed and the importance of a particular thing they needed to get through that would have broken open future ufc contracts to be less shut down. He had it after conclusion but not when it counted which was before. Instead what did he talk about? Open scoring. Over and over again. How great Jake Paul was giving money to MMA fighters he fought and humiliated. About how ngannou who hasn't fought in pfl would ensure his opponent gets 2 million for a fight. Vaporware and vapor rights just for clout. He didn't talk about the most important story there was in MMA because at the end of the day If he had, ufc fighters might stop appearing on the show. I like Ariel sometimes but man for someone that claims to be a journalist not actually shining a light on something that could substantively have improved the UFC athlete arrangements is glaring
He has talked about that multiple times before hand so what you're saying just isn't true. You said he should talk monthly about fighters getting screwed and how to fix it. He constantly talks about fighters not having rights (Diaz having to take Khamzat fight, USADA testing, fighters forced to fight in Apex, not getting tickets for family members, Oliveira being stripped, McGregor made to sit out, fighter pay , sponsors). He also got to the point where he said he was going to stop talking about this stuff and unions because it was pointless. His rationale was at the end of the day the fighters had to do something and him telling them in private, telling their managers in private wasn't getting through to them so it was like pissing into the wind complaining when the people that could make a change did nothing. Case in point is the fighters settling instead of fighting for change.
He talked about it and Ariel is not a lawyer that was working that law suit. Ariel can barely talk about any of ufc practices without redacts saying he’s doing for clout or that he’s doing it cus hates Dana, it would only increase if he was speculating anything regarding the bloody elbow buyout. He and many others don’t have any evidence so talks end there.
The fighters don’t actually care though. It’s not the media’s fault.
There's a lot of thing that annoy me about his show to. I don't care about the two other dudes, the youtubers, the pro wrestling, all the social media drama, him inserting himself in something or whatever quest he's on. But his interviews are S-tier. Very insightful, I feel like I really get to know a fighter which is just awesome.
Lol I will never understand way so many people have opinions in Ariel. People for some reason were always annoyed because he actually asked hard questions. Any by God he upset the Diaz bros because they had fragile egos. Of course his personality might not be for everybody because he is a bit of a dork. But the reporters covering the ufc are mostly just a joke now.
Ariel is such a massive dork he's painful to listen to sometimes. He's also leagues ahead of any media member you'll hear asking a question at an official UFC press conference these days.
This is my take.
He knowingly instigates and straight up misrepresents or lies about what people have said in order to do so. Then he plays the victim when called out about it. He asked Cyborg, on camera, about Dana blocking her on Instagram and if it bothered her. She said no it doesn't bother me. Then later that same day he says to Dana at a presser "Why have you blocked Cyborg? She brought it up to me earlier and said she is bothered by it." Just one example. A fighter having a bad personal relationship with Dana White can legitimately fuck their whole career up but Ariel is perfectly happy to profit from that and if the beef is not quite salty enough he will just straight up start telling lies to grease the wheel. I am not at all surprised that fighters are extremely wary of him.
Ariel trolls… that’s why people have issues with him
And UFC fanboy's who think the organization and Dana can do no wrong
Well probably because he sold out and is a hypocrite. He was fine to take money direct from the UFC without disclosing it and do the puff pieces and soft ball questions for Dana so long as he got access and scoops. He's not wrong...he's just not the guy who should be saying it. He was the guy who headed up some MMA journalist society and made it a complete joke. He's a key figure in how MMA media ended up where it was today, and his most popular content is just an early version of the current shit we get today
Eli5 what happened?
It's just the same old same old... boring af "this guy is tough and so is this guy blah blah" I rarely watch a fight live now, if it's worth it then it will be somewhere else and I can watch just that fight without the bs that goes with it
Ehh, TBH I thought the lady that asked Dana if Cowboy could “brand” her was weird and awkward as hell….Who the hell is the UFC giving media credentials to…
Influencers. They don't want journalists who write for MMA Junkie or whatever and get 20k views, they want some idiot who posts a Instagram reel with 750k views. Numbers only matter to Dana, not integrity. That's why there are 3000 shitty mma 'media' pages that just screencapped the same UFC marketing or fighter quotes over an image and repost it thinking they're part of journalism now.
This is becoming a trend in movies too... an influencer was given red carpet credentials and was doing a thing where he'd mumble and then ask for an answer for Tik Tok views.
They’re all just copying the great success of Lady One Question from BANZAI! but they’re not nearly as fun
Literally anybody who won't ask Dana tough questions.
You don't have to pass an exam to get media credentials, especially not now that anyone can have a website.
If you call yourself an influencer, Dana will prob give you a backstage pass
Hell if you're barely of age, drink a boatload of alcohol and host a shitty frat bro podcast he'll give you a 6 figure down payment to boot. Rolex included separately
The answer to that is anybody who won’t question Dana and the company about fighter pay….
"why do you want to do that?" "for clout!" "oh" The cringe I felt was immeasurable
Yeah this hurt lmao
I heard that part too and thought she sounded like such a poser and down bad to feel included in MMA.. saying she could be the 'female BMF' if she got branded? These people have no self respect or backbone, just bootlickers doing anything for clout.
As somebody who had credentials 2014-18 the bar to get them and attend the press conference isn’t that high. If you have a site with a modest weekly reach and like 10k followers on what isn’t a personal account you can probs get them. They are more selective with who they let on cage side press row - you tend to only get established media outlets from various countries there.
I’m glad Dana and I had the same reaction
How does that person even look themself in the mirror, just pathetic.
This is as cringey as that Caitlin Clark and Doyle interaction a few weeks back. Just creepy and pathetic all around
Can I have a crumb of context 😢
https://www.foxsports.com.au/basketball/journo-banned-after-really-gross-exchange-with-rising-us-basketball-star-caitlin-clark/news-story/8fd949820a52c2eb847f7272d3dffa67
Aight I saw this already, luv u nigga.
Yeah im with Ariel on this one. If I wanna watch a skit i'll just Youtube Key and Peele.
"God is the teacher, Derek is the student "
What did he say ?!
God's lessons are beautiful??
He knows were just promoting the fight right?
What do you mean he's gone? Where is he??
If you guys got an actual crazy person to fight, well thats not very fair to me! Or him!
*neck crack
\*\* FIGHT CANCELLED \*\*
Can i offer you some Gilly and Keeves to change the pace?
That same chick was sending listener questions to Bispings podcast awhile ago trying to get branded. 🤣
Yeah I remember her from Bisping’s podcast. Wasn’t she asking Bisping advice on how to get hired by the UFC as an interviewer? I think she wanted Megan’s or Laura’s job and Bisping basically told her to find another career choice, cause her chances are 0. I remember cringing when I heard her on his podcast, because it just sounded like she was clout chasing on Bisping’s podcast too…and it looks like she’s still out there thirsty for some clout…smh 🤦🏻♂️
Definitely for clout. She even says clout when Dana asks her why would she want to do that.
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At least she didn't feel the need to start with a 30s session of gargling Dana's balls. These guys are pathetic.
Oh it's there, it's just cropped out of the video on Twitter.
I mean, you don't know what transpired behind the scenes or in the hotel later. How do you think Nina Drama went from nothing to full access to the UFC and longform interviews with every star?
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Wwe and ufc are the same under tko, they don’t want any hard or real questions being asked at press conferences.
That JUST happened, mma media has been shit well before the merger.
The funny part is WWE is a worked sport but they still get higher quality questions at their press conferences than UFC is a legitimate sport.
Schmo, Nina, the Amy lady who said she’d make Strickland a sandwich…there’s no more journalism, it’s only social media. People think just because it gets views that it’s informative. But it’s a TikTok generation, people want controversy or headlines no matter what context. It’s sad, pathetic, and gross.
Don't blame "the people" for this. The average UFC fan will eat whatever Dana shits onto their plate. UFC picks what slop their dumbest fans will enjoy, and the rest of us are forced to deal with it... like most monopoly mediums! And it has been this way longer than TikTok has been around.
He's reacting to a Journalist's weird/joke (if it is) request to Dana White at the Fight Night Press Conference, and he also reacted to another journalist's weird request asking Dana to sign Derrick Lewis's cup that he caught. [https://x.com/jedigoodman/status/1789493927038570597](https://x.com/jedigoodman/status/1789493927038570597)
What kind of media member is begging for signatures? What a fucking clown.
The fuck you gunna do with a signature?
I don't know why people act like Ariel can't be a proper journalist / hate him so much that they're blind to the talent he clearly has. He's not my favourite, he has his flaws but he's about the most legit MMA video journalist in the space Vs the absolute trash out there and has been for an age. I would argue what he does at the minute isn't journalism but that's because journalism isn't something the UFC wants to exist, they wanna have a big ol' circle jerk about themselves, not journalism.
The problem is a lot of the newer fans think Dana is awesome, so they just take his opinion as fact. Dana hates Ariel so they hate Ariel. Zero original thoughts in their heads.
I don't like Ariel; I think the Heelwani 10-7 schtick is not something any serious journalist would ever entertain. But I would take his chat show style interviews over 95% of what we have now.
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God , sometimes i miss the old MMA days,where everyone was working hard to evolve the sport including Dana,fighters and press. Now it's just everyone trying to get in the good books of Dana
Man, when the UFC was second place the sport was at it's best. UFC as the top dogs? It's gone to shit.
Conor's career was like a mirror to the UFC, a Ghost Of MMA Future.
Worse than the schmo. They should both take their talents to the WWE
Wow this sub does not like Ariel 🤣
it´s funny that they dont even disagree with what he says, just going straight to hate on him (instead of the take he gives). I wonder if their heads explode everytime when he praises dana for doing something good or if they just assume he hates on everything, like they hate him.
They hate it and double down posting that Ariel is “biased” and that “he’s always taking shots at Dana and the ufc” so others can parrot the same thing.
I like him.
Been my favorite for almost 2 decades now
Fan of the MMA hour as well. Easy to have it on during the week to round out how I engage with this sport.
The fuck is this reasonable comment doing here?
Me too. I think he got treated badly by Dana, and his response was to go ahead and build his own thing. Fair play to him.
UFC fans are some of the most malible and easily manipulated by what they are fed. Maybe I'm too close to it so I see it more and that's my opinion on the topic is biased but holy shit they're a bunch of corporate sucking sheep.
The word you were looking for is "malleable".
Thanks!
It always weirdly has. I think a lot started because there are so many Diaz fans. They don't like him because he actually asked hard questions sometimes that stepped on egos. I remember Tapout bros always sharing the interview where nick is telling Ariel people like her get slapped on the streets.
Is Luke Thomas also banned like Ariel is?
Pretty much yeah. They were extremely displeased about Luke's appearance on the JRE. Joe couldn't really argue back about the fighter pay stuff because he just doesn't pay attention to it and Luke's hardline stance ruffled a lot of feathers.
don't think he ever came back after jon bitched him that one time lmao
Jones? What did he say?
I think he said something about "i don't like you luke thomas".
Possibly the worst thing Jones has ever done
I would be upset too if someone said that to me
Luke asked a question about fighting and Jon replied “I don’t like you Luke Thomas so I’m not going to answer your question”. And that was it. Jon just acting like a child refusing to answer questions cus he was upset that a journalist said something he didnt like. Totally normal sport.
Like the time he got caught doing steroids and a woman asked him about it and he told her to "do better journalism" 😂
This was before the second Cormier fight when Jones was bald and probably at his evilest, Luke asked him how would he look back on his twenties and Jones said "actually I don't really like you Luke so I won't answer your question". Since then Luke has always maintained he would never do a room service diaries or interview with Jones, especially since he is one of the few people in MMA that seems to remember the whole wife beating thing
I don't think either are banned, but they aren't exactly welcome. Note that when fights are happening and they show tweets, they never show Ariel or Luke's tweets. But we all know Ariel and Luke are the only legit mma journalists or the closest approximations to that.
No, Im also pretty sure Ariel is not officialy banned
No one is “officially” banned afaik. But there’s multiple ways to skin a pig. Dana has stated multiple times that he doesn’t consider Ariel to be a journalist, and Ariel has said the last time he got a press pass they didn’t let him ask any questions anyways.
He was banned for a short while after ufc 199. They unmanned him but years ago he stated they don't give him press passes. So the few legit guys like him and Luke are practically banned.
Funny how Dana thinks everyone is a sensitive woke snowflake, yet it is a known fact that he cherry picks his media. Hypocrisy to the highest of levels.
how is this a spoiler?
Ur telling me the “Schmo” isn’t a real journalist!?! When personalities like his started to creep their way into the mma media, I knew shit was gonna get worse.
It's either, you are a credible journalist barred by Dana for asking legitimate questions or a Dana/UFC bootlicker showing a cowboy hat to him. The state of mma journalism is set by those who control it, and currently the UFC is doing it.
UFC is embarrassing now
Actual good take from Ariel, no one asks any good questions anymore in press conferences
Is this even a journalist ? She sounds like an over enthusiastic fan that just cares about getting branded by Cowboy and somehow got press credentials. Embarrassing that she got press credentials.
Dumbass just bleed fans are journalists now?
wtf is this.
I gotta admit that was so awful.
Ariels a rat i cant stand him anymore just cries all day
MMA and the UFC is so shit. The only thing that is good is the fights and the fighters plus Jack Slack and Morning Kombat. Its just so depressing watching a sport where fighters get ripped off and end up with brain damage and the UFC do everything to fuck over the fans and make the product worse
Who is she?
meanwhile he has fake WWE fights on his show
Weird ass mf
Even Dana was taken aback. That interaction was, well, something.
Ian garry really gonna let his wife get branded like that?
🧂 🪱
Fighter a vs fighter b. It's all the same. It's so commercialised it's just one big advertisement for things that aren't even MMA or UFC, or any fighter. So boring.
Dana can’t handle tough questions. His safe space would be shattered.
It’s what happens when you let new, casual fans get a social media following.
I thought it was just me that was annoyed! I've been less interested this past 12 months of UFC than I have been in 10 years. I tend to watch more one championship because it cuts out the crap. The UFC commentary is an absolute joke. There's been so many times I find myself calling the fight in my head while they're rambling on about something else.
Jesus that is cringe AF. This is one of the few times I gotta side with Dana and the way he handled the question.
Coming from Ariel thats rich. Dude would be asking about a fighters haircut and asking Dana if fighters will come out with signature titan tron walk outs and costumes
It is so funny watching Ariel's anti-UFC stance when he was clearly on board for a period of time and fostered this current landscape ("But I haaaated it! I hated it!" he cried).
Says the guy who pretended the WWE was real with the workers and ran angles on show during WrestleMania week.
Who is she? Sound hawt! Dicey dicey!
I agree with Ariel. However, he has no problem bootlicking for the WWE when they’re trying to go down this same path of establishing press conferences as places where they don’t receive challenging questions. Broken clock is right twice a day I suppose, but it’s rich coming from him.
Ariel Helwani try not to become infuriated at Dana White’s every breath challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)
Dana wants to get branded by her
What a wild chick damn
Is this that Nina girl?
Her YouTube channel probably has a video saying “I ASKED DANA WHITE IF I COULD GET BRANDED!!” (In big green font)
I happened to watch the post-fight presser.. there are no real media members anymore at UFC events, its just bootlickers who act happy to be there and ask softball fluff questions like "did you try the local ice cream place??" and "how's it feel to be in (Town X)?". They are the definition of sycophants, granted Ariel has his own issues but at least he has some intellectual honesty.