Helen Yee
Creator · Verified
Combat-sports journalist interviewing UFC and boxing stars.
About Helen Yee
Helen Yee is the hardest-working interviewer in combat sports: the Las Vegas-based journalist, host, and founder of Eyes On The Game whose microphone has become a fixture at UFC fight weeks, boxing press conferences, and gym sessions across the fight capital of the world. Her beat is the human side of the hardest sport — the training, the psychology, the grind — delivered with the credibility of someone who has stepped into a cage herself.
The path was unconventional. Yee grew up in Southern California as a competitive swimmer, training for a decade and winning two Nevada state championships after relocating to Nevada. At 20, a modeling gig led to work as a ring girl and fitness model — including the NPC Jay Cutler Desert Classic — and then into the cage itself: she competed in the Lingerie FC, a sports-entertainment promotion, under the ring name “Helen Mei,” before transitioning to its broadcast team. The fighter became the reporter, and the reporter never forgot what it feels like to walk to a cage.
The media career built the way independent careers get built: from the ground up. Early spots on ESPN Radio’s Gridlock and writing for ESPN Las Vegas led to the launch of her own platform — Eyes On The Game on NBC Sports AM920, which she created and produced herself. In 2016 she started the Helen Yee Sports YouTube channel; an early interview with boxer Charles Martin pulled more than 100,000 views in two weeks, and the channel — tens of thousands of subscribers, more than 13 million views — became her newsroom.
The roster she has interviewed reads like a fight fan’s dream: Mike Tyson, Jay Cutler, and a deep bench of UFC contenders, champions, and rising prospects. Her style is athlete-forward — sparring sessions with Sean Strickland, conversations about motivation and mental health, fight-week predictions — the kind of access that only comes from being a known, trusted quantity in the gyms. Fighters talk to her like a peer, because she is one.
Since 2020 she has been one half of The Schmozone, the weekly Las Vegas-based combat-sports show co-hosted with Dave Schmulenson — The Schmo — the eccentric interviewer she is engaged to. The pairing works: her straight-arrow professionalism against his chaos-agent energy, a behind-the-scenes look at covering the fight game through hustle and heart. They have become independent media’s first couple of the sport, and their Thursday shows are appointment viewing for hardcore fans.
Yee’s profile has only grown in the sport’s busiest era. A resurfaced Lingerie FC clip sparked a viral 2025 moment — and a headline-grabbing back-and-forth with fellow UFC interviewer Nina-Marie Daniele — that reminded everyone how deep her fight-world roots go. Of Chinese descent and fluent in Mandarin, she connects with an international audience most American combat-sports media never reaches.
The swimming comeback arc is pure Helen Yee too: she has publicly chased a return to elite competition, setting her sights on the Olympic Trials in the 50 freestyle — a reminder that the athlete never really left. Journalist, former fighter, champion swimmer, entrepreneur: whatever the next lane is, she is already training for it.
What makes Helen Yee matter is the model: in a media landscape dominated by outlets, she is a one-woman network — reporter, host, producer, brand — who built a trusted name in the most access-driven sport in America by outworking everyone. She didn’t get handed a desk at a network. She bought the microphone, booked the fighters, and made the desk. The fighters respect it, the fans reward it, and the grind never stops.
The grind is the story. Fight-week reporting means red-eyes into Vegas, UFC APEX credentials, backstage scrums measured in minutes, and press-row seats at cards where the news breaks in real time. Yee has covered the sport through its biggest growth era — the ESPN years, the pandemic APEX era, the stadium superfights — building the kind of archive that only comes from never missing the event. Her YouTube channel is a time capsule of modern MMA: champions before they were champions, prospects before the hype.
The Schmozone turned the grind into a show. Every week from Las Vegas, Yee and The Schmo dissect the fight game — predictions, interviews, behind-the-scenes war stories — with the chemistry of two people who actually live the beat. The format lets Yee be the analyst, not just the asker: her fight IQ, honed in the cage and the gym, comes through in breakdowns that carry a fighter’s credibility. The clips travel; the Thursday show anchors a community.
Her place in the press row matters beyond the byline. As combat sports media grows — and as more women cover the hardest sport in America alongside names like Megan Olivi, Laura Sanko, and Nina-Marie Daniele — Yee represents the independent path: no network desk, no corporate backing, just relentless output and earned trust. Fighters respect the hustle; fans recognize the archive. In the access economy of MMA, she is self-made royalty.
About this creator
Helen Yee is combat sports’ hardest-working interviewer: the journalist behind @helenyeesports whose UFC and boxing interviews made her a fixture of fight-week coverage. Her YouTube channel is an archive of the modern fight game, one conversation at a time. The interview is the craft: Yee’s one-on-ones with champions and contenders capture fighters at their most…
Helen Yee is combat sports’ hardest-working interviewer: the journalist behind @helenyeesports whose UFC and boxing interviews made her a fixture of fight-week coverage. Her YouTube channel is an archive of the modern fight game, one conversation at a time.
The interview is the craft: Yee’s one-on-ones with champions and contenders capture fighters at their most candid — the moments between the promotion and the performance. Getting guarded athletes to open up is a skill, and she has it.
The beat is the biggest in combat sports: UFC pay-per-views, boxing superfights, and the endless news cycle in between. Yee covers it all with the energy of someone who genuinely loves the sport — because she does.
What the audience trusts is the consistency: showing up, asking good questions, and building the relationships that produce real answers. Fight-week reporting is a grind; Yee makes it look effortless.
As women’s presence in combat media grows, Yee is part of the vanguard — earning respect in press rows through professionalism and persistence. The interviews speak for themselves.
For fight fans who want the story behind the staredown, Helen Yee is essential: the questions are sharp, the access is real, and the archive keeps growing.
Fight-week journalism is a specific grind: the travel, the waiting, the five-minute windows that make or break a story. Yee’s consistency through it — event after event, year after year — built the archive that defines her.
The access economy of combat sports runs on trust: fighters talk to reporters they respect, and respect is earned one honest interview at a time. Yee’s press-row presence is the credential — and the conversations keep coming.
Ringside, press row, everywhere: Helen Yee’s fight-week grind built combat media’s most reliable archive.
The questions are sharp, the access is real — fight week’s essential reporter.
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