158 Comments

Hello Ariel!

I don’t have a question this week, rather I’d like to propose a suggestion that could revolutionize the On The Nose segment as we know it.

What about instead of sorting by chronological order, you sort by top first, which will list the questions by how many “likes” they get, rather than the order in which the questions are posted. Your loyal subscribers will “like” the questions we most want to hear you answer, which will improve the quality of the questions and filter out some of the trolls (and questions like the next one 🤦🏻‍♂️). Also, it will lead to some friendly competition among us subscribers to get the top question every week. What do you think?

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👋 Hola Ariel!!!

First and foremost congratulations on the championship! Now for my question, if you were to be a GM today for a promotion, and ALL ACTIVE fighters are free agents, who would you sign to be the face of your promotion today?

Consider skill, marketability, popularity, age, availability, health, possible length of career left and any on/off field issues when making your choice!!!

Also would love to know New York Ric’s choice as well even though it’s Wednesday.

Viva Heelwani 🦹🏻‍♂️

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Back on top, congrats buddy!

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Israel A-Diss-On-Ya

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Ça Va Ariel!

a couple of weeks ago you and I agreed Nathan Diaz is an underrated chess player in the game.

While Nate’s situation doesn’t look great from the outset, as you pointed out on Monday, could it be we mere peasants are unable to recognize another 244 esque powerplay by Nathan Machiavelli Diaz?

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Can you give a shout out to my cat Pingu? She just passed on yesterday, was my first cat, my bestie.

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Sorry to hear. RIP Pingu.

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Thanks Newman. She was such an amazing cat. She passed on while sleeping on Blanket Mountain in the cupboard. As good a way as any :)

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Dang Matt. Sorry to read this. RIP Pingu.

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Thanks Penny. I am so happy to be there for the two brothers :)

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RIP Pingu :(

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Thanks Mattmo :)

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Peace, Pingu.

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My man, good afternoon Ariel

I wanted to get your take on fighter's additional income streams. Some personalities within the fight game lend themselves to streaming, YouTube channels. Other's sell product or merchandise.

With so many branching out into other ventures, do you think it could ever reach a precipice where the promotion turns around and say "we want a cut. You built your name off our brand, cut us in".

It's a negative viewpoint but it's been a week of fighters receiving shady practices. Much love, Louis

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yeh boi

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Hey Ariel happy belated to Mrs H. really enjoyed the GOAT GSP on last weeks show. And his rationale and advice about why he kept his personal life so private was so compelling as it showed how cerebral he was about his opponents and mental warfare.

It made me wonder what is the most insightful thing / clever insight you’ve head an MMA fighter say about their approach to the fight game

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Ryan Hall has some great MMA philosophical insights. Would recommend his podcast with Lex Fridman.

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This is a great episode. Was hoping for a little more from the GSP, Danaher and Ryan episode. Still a fun one. Non MMA related - The episode with Niall Ferguson is incredible.

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Hello Ariel from Melbourne, Australia :) I really enjoyed your interview of Jeff Pearlman, who is also one of my fave sport writers. If Jeff asked you I want my next book to be out about MMA and I need a suggestion, what story would you recommend?

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I enjoyed that interview, also. Good question. There are so many stories and events just waiting to be mined by a cracking journalist. Personally would jump at a chance to read about the BC history of the sport, in Ancient China and Greece. Or the story and history surrounding Ali vs. Inoki (1976). So much ground to cover!

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You’ve called the UFC’s offer to Nate to fight Khamzat a bogus offer. Why is Nate Diaz automatically exempt from fighting Khamzat?

1. Burns is fighting him and you’ve expected Colby and usman to as well. I don’t think Diaz “deserves” more than these guys, especially usman (P4P #1)

2. Since when are we giving fan favorites easy fights on the way out?

3. He would be an even greater icon if he took out arguably the greatest hype train in UFC history so I don’t believe he thinks he can beat Khamzat or else he would benefit greatly from that

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Honesty it seems like you have a little hatred for diaz😂, you may not like it but fan favorites get what they want more often then not, and he doesn't want to face a lesser known to casual fans opponent. Also, he deserves more because he draws more eyes as simple as that.

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I don’t hate Diaz but he’s not my favorite fighter by any means. I feel like he’s more of a drama queen than mma media and fans give him credit for. He walked out of a press conference and didn’t wanna fight Dustin cause UFC showed Conor Khabib promo. You don’t see fans clamoring for Tony Ferguson to get easy fights right now even though he could use it....Diaz is held to a different standard I guess

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Nate fought Leon though.. And no casual knows who Leon is.

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Maybe so but remember leon had that number 3 or whatever it was at the time, and what would have come next?? A title fight no doubt... I don't know if that happens in a khamzat fight.

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Ariel Helwani!

New subscriber here, been a fan for years so I decided to dip my finger in the nose.

What’s the fight you’re most looking forward to on April 9th, UFC 273? This card is friggin STACKED!

Also, is it bad that I think Gilbert Burns has absolutely no shot against Khamzat? We’ve seen plenty of fighters hyped up but Khamzat… that man is legit terrifying!

Thanks for all that you do sir. I’m happy to be part of the HEELWANI army!

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Wow, great first post as a new subscriber! “Dip my finger in the nose”…I like it! Great name too. Welcome aboard.

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Thanks Newman! Much appreciated my man 💪🏻🙏🏻

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Any news for the international fight week ufc 276 card?

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Dear Ariel,

Greetings once again from London, Ontario, Canada. My question today pertains to Twitter. I use Twitter rarely and have approximately 20 followers; I have recently been informed by multiple credible sources that this is quite a sad number. I work in academia and there has been a push to have a more active Twitter presence, so I am looking into this platform more. I was wondering if you could provide any advice on how to navigate Twitter effectively in a professional capacity, and speak to any detrimental aspects of Twitter either professionally or socially that should be avoided?

Finally, after providing your thoughts on the above question, I was hoping you would consider a shout-out to “The ONES Checklist”, which is a clinical tool we recently published to help diagnose brain inflammation causing seizures. Thank you for taking the time to “cut a promo” for this (apologies, I am still not exactly sure how to best use this phrase). In the spirit of using Twitter, my tweet of The ONES Checklist can be found here:

https://mobile.twitter.com/adrianbudhram1/status/1508963660458303496

As always, I appreciate your valuable insights.

Sincerely,

Adrian

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PLEASE! Dont Sort Questions by "most Likes!!" we dont have time to read all the boody questions. I would have given Newmans request 4 thumbs down

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Good counterpoint

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Happy Wednesday Mister Ariel Helwani! Started watching when DC & Helwani started dominating the world :) Who’s someone you’d love to work with in the future? Cheers!

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Hello, Ariel!

Never got to say this to you but happy new year ;). If you had to pick one fighter to introduce a new fan to, which one would you pick? Keep in mind your goal is to get this said new fan hooked on MMA. My personal pick is Max Holloway. Never in a boring fight and being all the charisma. Thank you, Mr. Helwani.

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Ariel do you play chess, the game of kings and queens, online? If so, my handle is professionalbreather on Chess Time app.

I think it’s time...

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Salam alikum brother Ariel hope all is well . I’m a huge fan of all your work and have followed your career and think you’re the goat . My question has to do with my dude Cryptic Conor ! Don’t you think he sounds kinda like the legend Howard stern 😅 great commentating voice if he ever wanted to go that route . What do you think Ariel ? Thanks again and shout out to you all 🙏🏽

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GC's voice soothes my soul

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