"Couldn't have been sweeter" - Ariel Helwani details bumping into Nina-Marie Daniele at 2024 MMA Awards backstage

Ariel Helwani recently recalled his encounter with Nina-Marie Daniele backstage at the 2024 MMA Awards. Helwani claimed to have had a pleasant chat with Daniele and continued by praising the UFC content creator.

After being nominated alongside Aaron Bronsteter, Oscar Willis, Carlos Contreras Legaspi, and Nolan King, Helwani won the MMA Journalist of the Year award at the World MMA Awards, which was held this past Thursday at The Theater at the Virgin Hotels in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The MMA journalist talked about meeting Daniele, who attended the MMA awards gala, in a recent episode of his podcast The Ariel Helwani Show. Helwani claimed that he had an enjoyable conversation with the 35-year-old, whom he met for the first time:

''It really did warm my heart, it really did. The recognition and then most importantly reconnecting with some people I had not seen in quite some time and actually meeting some people for the first time. I got to meet uh Frank's [Warren] favorite MMA personality Nina Drama, who couldn't have been sweeter, couldn't have been nicer. We had a nice chat in the back, I enjoyed that very much.''

Check out Ariel Helwani's comments below (via Jedi Goodman's X post):

As for Daniele, she defeated UFC Hall of Famers Chael Sonnen and Daniel Cormier as well as octagon announcer Bruce Buffer to win the Personality of the Year award. Despite her background in non-combat sports, Daniele's social media influence and relationships with fighters have helped her build a name in the MMA world.

The former Playboy model began her mixed martial arts content creation journey in June 2022. She made her debut by interviewing Khabib Nurmagomedov, the former lightweight champion of the UFC, at his induction into the UFC Hall of Fame. Daniele has been recently making videos with light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira, who won the Fighter of the Year award.

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Ariel Helwani believes the PFL will never challenge UFC with their current model

Ariel Helwani urged the PFL to reconsider their existing approach if they want to compete with the UFC. The MMA journalist supports the promotion but believes their global season approach will not be successful.

In an episode of The Ariel Helwani Show, the 42-year-old stated:

''[PFL] will never come close... Because you will get hamstrung by it because you will try to build up this guy vs. this guy and this guy will falter and lose or he'll be banged up... That's not how you sell tickets... Pay-per-views... Stories and it gets frustrating to watch because I feel like they don't quite get it... And they're trying to shoehorn sports, regular sports, stick and ball sports to the fight game and it's just a whole different beast.''

Check out Ariel Helwani's comments below: