Thoughts & Shots: UFC 199

Let’s start off with the good: UFC 199 was one of the best fight cards I’ve seen in my 17-plus years of covering this sport. Surely, it is the leader in the clubhouse for “Event of the Year.” It had everything for which a fight fan could.Michael Bisping went full Matt Serra on Luke Rockhold, and Dan Henderson eviscerated Hector Lombard with a crazy back-elbow. Add in Dominick Cruz’s mastery of Urijah Faber, Max Holloway and Ricardo Lamas throwing down, and Dustin Poirier’s dismantling of Bobby Green and you have one incredible pay-per-view card. When you consider the organization was also able to announce the highly anticipated rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz as the main event for UFC 202, as well as the addition of Brock Lesnar to UFC 200, it should have been a busy night for MMA journalists and fans alike, breaking down the card and the impending possibilities for all the participants. The only problem is the promotion is going to have to put these great performances and announcements on the back burner while they do damage control after giving MMAFighting.com’s Ariel Helwani the boot prior to Bisping’s astonishing upset. There has been a simmering feud between the UFC and their broadcast partner Fox’s former on-air personality for months, if not years. That feud boiled over Saturday night when Helwani spoiled the big Lesnar and McGregor-Diaz announcements by — wait for it — reporting said news. Lance Pugmire of the L.A. Times tweeted that a UFC representative said “it’s not wholly accurate” to assume the removal was for breaking the news stories. While I understand there were some earlier issues that have flared up over the years, Helwani was credentialed as of this afternoon, and now he isn’t. What changed over that time period? This is something that has obviously been brewing for some time, and apparently the powers that be felt that they’d seen and heard enough from Helwani after he ruined their big announcements. Perhaps we’ll get some kind of official word from the promotion in the coming days as to …

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