Per Awful Announcing, the UFC was not happy Helwani broke the news that Brock Lesnar would be making his comeback at UFC 200 before it was officially announced. Earlier on Saturday, Helwani was also the first to report a Conor McGregor-Nate Diaz rematch will headline UFC 202.
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The trio of reporters, which also includes E. Casey Leydon and Esther Lin, was escorted out of the Los Angeles arena and had their media credentials revoked before the main event at UFC 199, the middleweight title bout between Luke Rockhold and Michael Bisping.
It’s not clear why Leydon or Lin were booted, although Leydon did report — and express mild shock — that UFC president Dana White was not in the octagon, as is custom, after Dominick Cruz defeated Urijah Faber in the co-main event.
UFC vice president of public relations Dave Sholler refused to talk about the situation, according to MMA Junkie.
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This is not a good look for the UFC. Helwani was doing what reporters are supposed to do: report.
Awful Announcing’s Joe Lucia offers this perspective on the “notoriously thin-skinned” fighting league:
