Last month, UFC CEO Dana White announced that former lightweight champion Dustin Poirier will take on #12 ranked Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299 on February 17. However, this was followed by reports that ‘BSD’ was not even aware that he would be fighting Poirier. This incensed White, who came after the journalist who broke the story. The UFC boss showed texts indicating the Frenchman was aware of the fight and blasted the media for allegedly circulating false information.

However, many have pointed out that who the texts were meant for was not visible and that White may have been talking to ‘God of War’s manager. A few days later, Dustin Poirier announced that the bout was off before clarifying later that it was back on. Ariel Helwani came to the aid of his fellow journalists and countered the UFC CEO with some counter-points.

Helwani counters Dana White’s claims about false reporting

Speaking about the whole affair on his MMA Hour show on YouTube, Ariel Helwani laid out the exact timeline of events. He started off by pointing out that even as Dana White announced the fight, he was cautioning everyone not to take it as a done deal. The journalist claimed that he knew for a fact that Poirier was not on board when the fight had been announced.

“Dana drops two fights DP versus BSD at 299 and Charles Oliveira versus Armen Tsarukyan at 300 and so everyone’s buzzing. On this show, I was sitting here saying, ‘You know, it’s important to note that sometimes these fights get announced and they’re not done just yet.’ I have no problem telling you that I knew he (Poirier) had not agreed to it because I talk to him anytime these fights get announced,” Helwani said.

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Helwani then claimed that Saint-Denis agreeing to the fight was not the issue and that the controversy was around Dustin Poirier having agreed to the fight. “BSD’s involvement in the fight was never in question. We knew he was in. Poirier’s involvement was in question and nothing that he revealed backed the notion that DP was in,” he added.

And Helwani pointed out that the media had been vindicated in its claims about Poirier.

Helwani thinks UFC agreed to a hasty deal with Poirier to save face

Helwani pointed out that the reporting around Dustin Poirier not having agreed to the Saint-Denis fight did, in fact, turn out to be true since ‘Diamond’ tweeted about it himself. The journalist said he had suspected the announcement was a case of the UFC trying to put pressure on the #3 ranked lightweight as a negotiation tactic. This, Helwani claimed, was a tactic regularly used by the promotion and revealed that a preliminary card fight on UFC 300 had similarly been announced without contracts being signed by all bodies. The UFC quickly got a deal done with the New Orleans native soon after to save face, according to Helwani.

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“And so we’re all talking about it…. maybe this is public negotiation 101 and it ends up being just that. A couple hours later we get the other tweet from DP saying oh ‘I jumped the gun, you know… It’s all been rectified I’ll see you in Miami. The media got nothing wrong it was never agreed to. He put it out there that he was out, they fixed it because they didn’t want egg on their face. Them’s the facts,” Helwani asserted. Who do you think is right on the matter?

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