“Probably the most nuanced discussion I’ve had with someone about the Apex,” Ariel Helwani wrote on X on Monday, Oct. 12. “I do acknowledge Andre’s points here, but I still believe the Apex is a crutch that ultimately hurts the product. That said, the recent upgrades to the Apex have greatly improved the experience.”
The Andre is Andre Fili. Helwani attached the quote from Fili that started the whole thing, and Fili didn’t hedge one bit:
“You and everyone else are so wrong about the Apex. I want you guys to keep shitting on the Apex so that people keep buying into that narrative, so more people don’t want to fight there and I can keep fighting at the Apex. I will fight at the Apex for the rest of my career with a big smile. I’m the Apex predator, baby. I’m the king of the Apex. That’s home field for me.”
View post on X
That’s a fighter treating a venue most people complain about like a market inefficiency. In Fili’s telling, every fan and media member who trashes the room makes it a little less appealing to other fighters, and that leaves more Apex dates for him. He also took a jab at the critics on the way through, telling Helwani that he and everyone else have it wrong.
Helwani’s position comes from the other side of the screen. The clip of their conversation was shared on X by the account Spinnin Backfist, which summed it up this way. Fili wants all of his future fights at the Apex, and Helwani laid out what he called his own and the fans’ view, which is that the Apex is draining joy out of MMA. His core complaint is the empty-room feel. Cards with no real crowd strip out the energy and the excitement that fans tune in for.
He still gave ground on two points. He called it the most nuanced Apex debate he’s had, and he credited the recent upgrades to the building for greatly improving the experience. That’s a real softening from someone who still calls the place a crutch in the very same post.
View post on X
The split between the two men is pretty clean. Fili is a fighter and cares about where he’s comfortable and where he wins. Helwani is speaking as a viewer and cares about how the event feels from the couch. Both of those things can be true at once, and nobody in this exchange claimed otherwise.
My take is that the fighter who says he wants to keep fighting there “with a big smile” has just handed the UFC its easiest booking of the year. Expect the next Fili fight to land at the Apex, and expect him to call it home field when it does.
