After three years with the top sports broadcaster in North America, Ariel Helwani is taking his talents elsewhere.
On Sunday, MMA reporter Ariel Helwani announced that he would be leaving ESPN on June 15th as he posted a 10-minute video to Instagram.
“I have some VERY exciting news to share about my future in due time,” he wrote in the caption. “This was 100% my decision.”
“June 15th, which is I believe next Tuesday, will be my last day at ESPN,” Helwani said in the video. “It’s been an amazing three years. I know a lot of you have heard me talk ad nauseum over the past three years over how much working for ESPN has meant to me. It was honestly a dream come true.”
“All the interview shows, and DC & Helwani, and Ariel and the Bad Guy, it’s just been a great three year run,” he continued. “So I want to let you know that there’s no hard feelings here. ESPN did offer me a new contract, I signed for 3 years back in 2018. They offered me a new contract, I got the opportunity to look at what was out there for me and I found a lot of exciting opportunities and a lot of things that I think the fans will like and be pumped about, as I am as well.”
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“I’d be lying if I said I’d get [to ESPN] and then I’d leave three years later, but this is a crazy world and a crazy business and once I was given an opportunity to see what else was out there, I found a lot of things that really got me excited and I can’t wait to share those with you.”
“It’s crazy to think that it started and now it’s over, but I have a lot, a lot of exciting things that I can’t wait to share with you,” Helwani said. “The long time fans, the people who had my back, the supporters, are gonna be really pumped about it and it’s kind of crazy that it’s happening on the five year anniversary of UFC 199, when I was told my career was over and a bullet would be put in my head.”
“Now I’m about to embark on this new chapter, and as I’ve always said, I don’t feel like I work for any entity, I feel like I work for the fans because you guys saved my career. You guys saved me, there’s no doubt about that. So I’ll try to do right by the fans and try to cover the sport the right way, and in a fun way, original way, unique way. And obviously cover the fighters, the most important in all this, in a proper and professional way.”
