In this interview, Sam Parr asks Ariel Helwani about the principles that guided his rise as a leading MMA journalist. Helwani recounts his early ambition to become a mainstream sport broadcaster like Bob Costas, but he chose to "bet on himself" by focusing on the then‑fringe sport of mixed‑martial‑arts. He predicted the UFC would become mainstream within a decade and positioned himself as the "Howard Cosell of MMA," eventually landing a major role at Fox in 2011. Helwani emphasizes the mantra "niches get riches," arguing that in today’s a‑la‑carte media landscape, specializing in a narrow field (e.g., a specific sport, betting, or statistics) is far more effective than being a generalist. He illustrates this with examples of how listeners now seek out niche podcasts for deep dives, and he advises newcomers to find both a primary niche and a sub‑niche—such as using stats, betting knowledge, or interview skills—to break into the industry. The conversation underscores the importance of self‑belief, early niche selection, and adapting to modern consumption habits for career success in sports journalism.
I feel like I could rule the world. I know I could be what I want to. I put my all in it like no days off. On the road, let's travel, never looking back.
Betting on yourself sometimes as an entrepreneur is kind of obvious. You don't really have a job, you know, by default you bet on yourself. You had quote unquote good jobs at each of these stops. And then you said, look, this isn't it. I'm gonna bet on myself and I'm gonna go independent. I'm gonna do my thing. So you have a strong dose of bet on yourself. You have another one that Sam, Sam, uh, coined, which is niches get riches, which is that I know you're a basketball fan, but you didn't go into the more established field, that one that had a career track that you could tell your mom, look, there's other people who have made it in this field. I could be the next whatever, uh, in basketball. You went for MMA, which is today fringe, let alone back in, you know, 2006 or whatever. Like Nobody was really, there was no blueprint or there was no like success stories doing what you were doing, I don't think at that time. Like you are the kind of the success story of that niche. And so I wanna hear kind of how you decided to bet on that even though you have other interests, you have other sports that you're interested in as well. And then the last one is, there's this great phrase which is, you know, you wanna do the work that feels like, that looks like work to others but it feels like play to you. So like if I was gonna interview somebody 4 hours a day, I would be exhausted, and I think you get, you pick up steam by energy, by hour 3 you're like, you're just hitting your groove, and it gives you energy. So I think that's another example of where you kind of live one of these principles that we talk about. But tell me about the niche thing. Why did you bet on this?
That spoke to my heart. That spoke to my heart, that's a great line. Niches get riches, 'cause I couldn't agree with you more. When I got to Syracuse for the first time in my life, like when I went to Syracuse, I wanted to be the next Costas, Marv Albert, basketball, baseball, football, traditional guy. 'Hello, welcome to ABC Sports. I'm Ariel Hawani. World Series, Super Bowl.' And for the first time in my life, I realized, 'Wow, there's a lot of people in this world who are my age, who have the exact same dream as me, who are a little more polished, who have nicer hair, who don't have as big of a nose, and maybe don't have such a foreign name. Their name is John Smith, and they just kind of fit that Bob Costas mold.' And I never, I never like to follow, you know, the pack. And so I remember telling my parents in September of 2001, there's this sport called mixed martial arts, there's this organization called the UFC. At this point, it's not even 8 years old, and I think it's going to be mainstream. And I think in 10 years, there's going to be some executive in some office, some older guy who's like, what is this crazy cage fighting sport? I know nothing about it, but apparently it's very popular. Who's the guy? Who's the voice? Who's the Howard Cosell of MMA? And I want to be that guy. Um, and amazingly, Literally 10 years later, August of 2011, I was hired by Fox, and that was like my first big, you know, mainstream gig. And so it kind of worked out in that regard. But I say this to young people all the time when they reach out to me and they send me, you know, oh, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to be, you know, Stephen A. Smith and all this stuff. In this day and age, you don't want to be a generalist. You're a fan of the New York Knicks, you're a fan of the New York Knickerbockers, I'm not gonna go tune in to the radio, ESPN Radio Now, I'm not gonna go in my car, tune in, and say, oh, I hope you guys talk about the Knicks-Celtics game last night. I'm gonna go on my podcast app, and I'm going to go to the New York Knicks podcast, as niche as it gets, to hear an hour breakdown of last night's game. If I'm a big pro wrestling fan, I'm going to go to my pro wrestling podcast and listen, MMA podcast, listen to business podcast. The days of sitting in your car and hoping that they talk about something or listening to people just talk about God knows what, those days are over. And so it is actually a lot better in my opinion to go into a niche, to be the niche guy as opposed to being the generalist. Yeah, there's a couple guys who will make it, Stephen A. and those guys, but for the most part in my world, it's way better to be the niche guy. And I try to explain that. And within the niche, Have your own niche as well. So like my thing, interviews. I tell other people like find your thing. There was a young guy, I always bring up Mike Bon, he works for MMA Junkie, and he's a lot younger than I am. His niche that he used to get in the door were stats and factoids. So he would have all these stats about all the fighters. Great. These days, maybe it's betting. Betting is super hot right now. Use that as your niche to get in the door. So yes, I couldn't agree more with that mindset, and I would urge anyone in this day and age, this day and age of à la carte, you know, everything is à la carte, right? Podcasts, streaming, all that. The more niche, the better. You'll have way more success rather than being just some guy. Like, those days 50 years ago when you were a columnist for a newspaper, those days are over.
