Dana White has developed a knack for defending controversial people over the years, but when it comes to Joe Rogan, the UFC CEO makes it sound very personal. According to the head honcho, numerous sponsors once approached him, demanding changes involving the UFC commentators’s role with the organization.
His response was immediate and blunt: absolutely not. Speaking on a podcast with David Senra, Dana White explained why Rogan became so vital to the UFC. When the organization was still trying to persuade mainstream audiences that MMA was legitimate, the UFC CEO believed Joe Rogan possessed a unique ability.
“This is the f—— guy I need right here,” he said. “I need him to do commentaries. Educated on martial arts, he’s not afraid to talk about uh controversial s—.
“This is my guy. So I reach out to Rogan, and we hit it off immediately.”
😳🫡 Dana White said UFC sponsors reached out to him asking to fire Joe Rogan but he refused every time: “During Rogan’s rise, he went through some personal stuff. I had people calling me, whether it was sponsors or whoever, saying, ‘You gotta do this to Rogan. I’m like, Show more
But as Joe Rogan‘s influence grew outside of the UFC through podcasting and comedy, pressure appeared to build behind the scenes. White claimed that sponsors and other business figures occasionally reached out, suggesting that the promotion separate itself from the UFC commentator and remove him entirely. However, those talks did not last long.
“In Rogan’s rise, he’s gone through some s— personally too,” he added. “You know, where I’ve had people call and say, ‘Hey, you know, whether it’s sponsors or whoever, you gotta do this to Rogan.’
“And I’m like, ‘Like, don’t ever f—— call me.’ Who the f— are you to call me and tell me who I’m gonna fire or do whatever to? First of all, Joe Rogan did the first 12 fights for us for free.”
That history is why the UFC CEO still sees Joe Rogan differently from a normal commentator. Even though the UFC commentator now works fewer cards and mostly sticks to pay-per-view events, Dana White clearly sees him as an integral part of the UFC’s identity.
But, while he and numerous other fans enjoy hearing him on the mic, it seems like some UFC entities are slowly getting tired of the JRE host.
Tom Aspinall goes off on Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier
That is why the criticism surrounding Joe Rogan is so interesting. For every Dana White who sees the JRE host as untouchable within the UFC setting, there appears to be another fighter growing frustrated with the way some fights are called on commentary.
And after UFC 328, Tom Aspinall clearly had plenty to say. While watching Sean Strickland defeat Khamzat Chimaev in Newark, the heavyweight champion expressed frustration with the commentary team, particularly Rogan and Daniel Cormier.
At one point, the Briton mocked the idea that Strickland’s fatigue was only caused by body shots from ‘Borz’ rather than the obvious reality of two elite fighters exhausting themselves over 20 minutes.
“’DC’ talking bout the only reason Sean Strickland is getting tired is because Khamzat is landing body shots,” he said on his YouTube channel. “Not the fact that they’ve just had a fight for 20 minutes. That doesn’t matter.
“It’s just the body shots that are making him tired, nothing else.”
He also became irritated when Rogan kept discussing Chimaev’s cardio during corner moments that Aspinall felt viewers should actually be hearing.
“We can’t hear the corner work because Joe Rogan is talking bout how bad Khamzat’s cardio is after all his training,” he continued. “I wanna hear the corner. Stop telling us about Khamzat’s cardio.”
The biggest dispute came in the final round, when Tom Aspinall felt the commentary team was undervaluing Sean Strickland’s jab-heavy offense.
“The commentators are saying, ‘Sean has got to land some big shots to win the fight in this fifth round,’” he added. “I know they’re jabs, but he is landing a lot of them. Just because it’s a jab doesn’t mean it’s insignificant,” Aspinall insisted.
“It’s still a powerful strike that is causing damage, so I disagree with the narrative that just because they are jabs, they are not effective.
The commentators are talking like it’s insignificant just because they are jabs, and it isn’t.”
According to the UFC heavyweight champion, the jab was already causing significant damage and clearly hurting Khamzat Chimaev. Despite later admitting that the outcome could have gone either way, Tom Aspinall clearly believed the broadcast narrative slanted too much toward ‘Borz’ while disregarding how effective Sean Strickland’s constant striking was.
