



Several members serving on the MMAJA Board of Directors have been caught violating the same rules and codes of conduct used to exclude other qualified journalists from acceptance into the group.

According to the official MMAJA rules and regulations, "members mustn’t accept payment or gifts from event promoters, fighters, managers, gyms, coaches, sponsors, and other parties with a vested interest in the business of MMA. Additionally, the journalistic work of MMAJA members should not be influenced by financial arrangements, including media rights deals, made between their media outlet and any person or organization vested in MMA."

This regulation was breached by multiple MMAJA board members.

Ariel Helwani, MMAJA Vice President and interim Board of Directors member, disclosed last summer that he was paid directly by Zuffa while working as an on-air talent for Fox. This is a clear violation of the aforementioned rule set forth by the MMAJA, an organization that was supposedly built to promote a high standard of ethics in journalism.

Helwani also violated the MMAJA code of conduct that states "no taking pictures with fighters or event officials for nonprofessional purposes while working." On his official Instagram page, the legendary MMA reporter is spotted in selfies and other pics with MMA personalities such as Joe Silva, Andrei Arlovski and Luke Rockhold.

When asked for clarification on the rule, MMAJA told MMA reporter Eric Holden via e-mail that "there's a clear difference between allowing oneself to be photographed and using press access to request selfies with fighters for personal use. The MMAJA doesn't require that its members never appear in photos with fighters, but we regard it as unprofessional to use access as a media member in order to request personal photos with fighters."

Did Helwani use his status as a media member to get pics with the UFC matchmaker and others? That's open for debate, but seems likely.

Other board members have a similar history of violations to the MMAJA's code of conduct. Between 2013 and 2014, MMAJA treasurer and interim board member Marc Raimondi was a staff writer for FOX Sports, a network with a multi-million dollar broadcast agreement with the UFC. All it takes is one look at Raimondi's content produced for FOX to see that he was paid to essentially produce favorable coverage of the UFC, and ignore all other high-level promotions. During Raimondi's time at FOX, he produced hundreds of UFC articles and very little about other professional promotions.

Raimondi's work for Fox -- while the network was in the midst of a deal with the UFC -- violated MMAJA's rule on members being influenced by financial arrangements and/or media rights deals between their media outlet and organization vested in MMA.

Elsewhere on the interim board, MMAJA President Dann Stupp and director Ben Fowlkes may want to address the long-running rumor that the UFC pays USA Today for coverage. UFC President Dana White alluded to the issue on Twitter in 2015, as reported by Deadspin.

Since Stupp and Fowlkes are on USA Today's payroll, it would be a violation of MMAJA's rule on members being influenced by financial arrangements and/or media rights deals between their media outlet and organization vested in MMA, if it turns out to be true that the UFC pays USA Today for coverage. White's tweet appears to confirm that the UFC does indeed pay the paper for coverage.