Female reporter who asked Dana White to be branded responds to Ariel Helwani's criticism - "You are not the end-all-be-all"
Veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani has incurred the wrath of a fellow reporter for trying to put her down by branding one of her requests to Dana White at the recently concluded UFC St. Louis as embarrassing.
The reporter in question Abbey Wagoner, had a peculiar request for White during the post-fight press conference for the event. She wanted to know if the 54-year-old would help her get branded by Donald Cerrone.
For context 'Cowboy' was set to ride the UFC CEO's bucking bull 'Twisted Steel' at the PBR World finals this Saturday in Arlington Texas. However, the UFC veteran is no longer part of the event after he tore his bicep while training in the practice pen for the upcoming ride.
While Wagoner was originally planning to let Cerrone brand her with his BMF ranch's sigil if he had successfully ridden the nearly 1400 pounds behemoth, she has since made up her mind to let the MMA fighter brand her regardless.
While White seemed amused by the question, he respectfully disagreed. Helwani, however, was less amused. In a post on X, he blasted her, lamenting the current state of MMA media.
Wagoner did not take lightly the popular journalist's insults. In a recent post on X, she clapped back at Helwani, arguing that the question was hardly irrelevant since she was one of the few combat sports reporters who were religiously covering the 'Twisted Steel'-PBR story.
She added:
"Maybe do not question my relevancy or my right to be in that room, without understanding everything that goes in... It's news media, I am new and you are not the end-all-be-all, Ariel."
Catch Abbey Wagoner's response to Ariel Helwani below:
When Ariel Helwani blasted ring announcer for botching it "so bad"
Ariel Helwani has been in no mood to entertain unprofessionalism in sports reporting in recent days.
After the ring announcer misread the fight result at the co-main event of Lomachenko vs. Kambosos Jr. the whole fight community including the commentators had a field day with him, Helwani too made sure to get his words in.
In a post on X, the MMA reporter noted his disbelief at the incident saying:
"Yooo What the hell just happened at this Top Rank event? The ring announcer just read the scorecards COMPLETELY wrong. Never seen someone in that spot botch it so badly. Wow."