Marchand Sports Media 'The Howard Cosell of MMA' & the evolution of the multi-platform sports media star
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In the 48-minute sports media podcast, Ariel Helwani joins “The Main Event with Andrew Marchand.” Helwani, 42, decided at Syracuse he wanted to become the “Howard Cosell of MMA" and has used modern media to enact the plan. Here is what you need to know:
* How Helwani’s career has been a dream mixed with some improbable lows
* In 2001, at Syracuse, he decided to become an expert on the fledgling sport of MMA
* How his parents and family history had such an impact on him in terms of dreaming big and never quitting
* The NBA on NBC influence on him
* He went to Syracuse after he found out Bob Costas and Marv Albert went there
* How he needed his family’s help to do his first MMA show
* Helwani quit his first job at Spike TV because he didn’t see an MMA future there, which his boss at the time said would ruin him
* He had a deadline for his own website to succeed that he nearly missed
* How, at 29, Fox Sports hired him to be the Jay Glazer of MMA in 2011
* How the “MMA Hour” on Vox allowed him to do TV and grow on the internet, the first seeds of the future of sports media platforming
* In 2015-16, the major paycheck mistake that Helwani still regrets
* How he got fired by Fox Sports at UFC’s request
* Helwani reacted by trying to break every story, like he was Woj or Schefter
* UFC thought he had a mole inside the company and went to great lengths to try to prove it
* How he had a close relationship with Dana White
* White encouraging him to break stories and not worrying about the UFC PR folks
* How White told him that UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta “put a bullet in his head and his career was over”
* In June, 2016, Helwani has his UFC credentials yanked after breaking two big stories and it all gets very intense
* The advice his agents, Nick Khan and Matt Olsen, gave him to get the word out … and he did after the incident
* How Kahn and company got him into ESPN before ESPN-UFC’s deal
* How Helwani said UFC went to ESPN’s top executives, Jimmy Pitaro and Burke Magnus, to back out at the Helwani contract
* UFC would complain to Pitaro and ESPN about Helwani’s coverage, he said, but ESPN backed him
* Why Helwani left ESPN
* How he nearly stayed at ESPN to spite White, but he said he came to his senses
* How he went back to Vox and Jim Bankoff, who was prescient how the ESPN tenure would unfold
* How Bill Simmons and Ryan Spoon influenced the next stage of his multi-platform
* How the Simmons, Pat McAfee, Dan Patrick, Dan Le Batard and Rich Eisen model works for him
* How UTA’s Jerry Sibolwitz guided him through the next stage of being a multi-platform personality
* How he ended up with Yahoo and Spoon
* Helwani said he created 25 jobs with his new venture
* How does it work with Helwani, Khan and White, who are under the TKO umbrella with WWE and UFC
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* Fred Gaudelli: How a Hall of Fame producer changed sports TV
* Joe Buck and the craft of sportscasting
* Bomani Jones and sports media’s gamble on its future
* On-deck Tuesday: Marchand & Meterparel: Everybody Loves Sports Media
* Sponsor: WSC Sports … Tell them Marchand sent you
* Subscribe at AndrewMarchand.com