After weeks of one of the strangest beefs in MMA history, Brendan Schaub says he is done squabbling with Ariel Helwani.
For months, Helwani let Schaub talk about him without saying anything back, supposedly spreading lies fueled by Joe Rogan. Then from the dark depths rose the dreaded Kaiju, Heelwani, who had finally decided to respond, beginning a back-and-forth feud that made Khabib vs McGregor look tame.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that serious.
Nevertheless, Brendan Schaub has had enough of the squabbling between him and Helwani and decided to call an end to it all. Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, the former UFC heavyweight explained that he and the journalist spoke on the phone, and he got an understanding of the impact his words had on Helwani.
“We had a conversation, a straight-up phone call like two grown-ups. I don’t hate the guy… I think this kind of spiraled out of control a little bit on his end because when I made those off-putting comments about him, I didn’t realize how bad I hurt him… The context on ‘Fighter and the Kid’, it came off as a joke. I get it from a number of different angles… Ariel, there might be some people out there who want to carry this on. That has nothing to do with me. This is it from here. This is it on my side of things,” said Schaub (h/t Sportskeeda).
Time will tell if this is truly the end of the Brandan Schuab vs Ariel Helwani beef or if either party will start things back up again for some other reason. In any event, seeing as how these two will never actually end up fighting each other, this was an odd back and forth between the two.
You can watch Brendan Schaub’s full podcast episode below:
