UFC: 'Banned' reporter Ariel Helwani's version of story 'not wholly accurate'

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The Ultimate Fighting Championship was accused on Saturday night of banishing a mixed martial artist journalist from its UFC 199 event for reporting the news of Brock Lesnar’s impending return to the octagon.

Ariel Helwani, reporter for mmafighting.com and formerly Fox Sports, tweeted on Saturday afternoon that a deal was close to being finalized for Lesnar to fight at the organization’s flagship event, UFC 200, on July 9. Lesnar’s return to the octagon, apparently for a one-off fight before returning to pro wrestling’s WWE, was a major surprise.

Later in the evening, it was announced on the pay-per-view telecast that Lesnar would indeed come back, fighting a yet to be determined opponent in the co-main-event.

However, according to Helwani, before Michael Bisping’s knockout of Luke Rockhold, Helwani was escorted from The Forum and told he would never be credentialed for a UFC event in the future.

“Did nothing unethical,” Helwani wrote. “ I reported fight news. That’s it (and) then told we’re banned for life.”

Helwani’s colleagues, photographer Esther Lin and video director E. Casey Leydon, were removed with him.

UFC president Dana White did not appear at the event’s post-fight media conference. However, UFC public relations director Dave Sholler confirmed that Helwani had been removed, but insisted the reporter’s version of events was “not wholly accurate” in comments to Paste BN Sports and the Los Angeles Times.  When pressed for more details or further explanation of what "not wholly accurate" meant, Sholler would not elaborate.