Dana White knows a GOAT when he sees one.
The UFC CEO has been spending a lot of time lately declaring Jon Jones the greatest fighter of all time in mixed martial arts, and he says you have to be “f—ing stupid” to think otherwise. Now he’s widening his lens to other areas of the combat sports landscape like commentary, and he has a clear GOAT there too: Joe Rogan.
In a new interview with Brian Kilmeade on FOX’s One Nation, White considers Rogan to be one of the best hires he ever made as head of the UFC. Sure, Rogan had already worked at several UFC events before White and the Fertitta brothers bought the promotion in 2001. But White claims he didn’t even know that when he watched a VHS tape of Rogan defending MMA on a sports show.
“I ended up reaching out to Rogan, we hit it off and that’s it,” White told Kilmeade.
“He said, ‘Wait a minute. So you’re telling me I can come to the the sport that I love the most in the world, have the best seat in the house, and talk about it on TV? I’m in!’ He did the first 13 for free, and the rest is history. Now he has the biggest podcast in the world, and he’s the greatest combat sports commentator of all time.”
For years, Rogan worked alongside Mike Goldberg on nearly every UFC event. Goldberg handled the play-by-play and Rogan was on color commentary duty, using his deep knowledge of fighting to fill in knowledge gaps for new fans (and Goldberg as well, oftentimes). It was a solid arrangement, and much better than most of what we’d seen up to that point. Few fans had complaints in that era.
These days the booth has changed and Rogan only works U.S. pay-per-views, usually alongside Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier. International events and UFC Fight Nights are handled by a rotating roster that includes Paul Felder, Michael Bisping, and Dominick Cruz. All including Rogan have their fans and haters. Some on both sides note that certain booth combinations result in less than stellar analysis — and that’s been a frequent critique of the Rogan / Cormier pairing.
But just like Jon Jones, Joe Rogan has been at this for a very long time and it’s gonna be tough for anyone to make their mark in this sport like he has. He’s definitely the most popular and best known to ever do it in MMA. Does that make him the GOAT? Across all combat sports??? We’ll let you debate that in the comments below.
Always liked Bas a bit more. That doesn’t mean Rogan is not good. A UFC event without Rogan commentating seemed off when they first started using other teams.
Josh Barnett was on commentary for a few Pride fights, I don’t remember if it was whole card he did or not but he was incredible.
Where does Mike Goldberg rank?
Hall of Famer
“He should throw KNEES!!”
Bas and Quadros were a good team.
Need to bring back Goldy, so bad he’s good.
“The Voice” Mike Schiavello would like a word
Yep!
Is he commentating anywhere? I dont know why he was out at OneFC
He does commentary for the new K-1 right now and I think he does smaller shows too. Have no idea why he isn’t with ONE anymore but their replacement sucks ass compared to Mike. Chilson is great but the commentary just doesn’t have the energy that it once did.
Barnett and Schiavello for Goat commentary team could you imagine.
Jimmy Smith and Sean Wheelock are up there.
Same…
There’s a long list of great color commentators who have called boxing matches and MMA fights but Dana White believes there’s one person who stands heads and shoulders above the crowd.
Ever since he first debuted with the UFC as a backstage interviewer all the way back in 1997, Joe Rogan has been a mainstay with the promotion. These days he’s the lead color commentator for most of the major pay-per-view broadcasts and the UFC CEO offered him high praise when addressing Rogan’s contributions to combat sports.
“I consider him the greatest to ever do it,” White told the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast. “F*ck all these guys that have ever done any type of commentating on combat sports before this. Rogan is by far [the best].”
While there’s obviously subjectivity when calling anybody the greatest of all-time, White explained one of the many reasons why he believes Rogan has cemented himself at the top — at least where MMA is involved.
When Rogan first started calling fights for the UFC after Zuffa purchased the organization back in 2001, MMA was barely a blip on the overall sports radar. Fans tuning into watch a UFC broadcast didn’t really understand all the nuances of the sport but especially when it came to the ground game that blended wrestling, striking and grappling.
White credits Rogan with finding a way to explain those positions to a general audience that didn’t know the first thing about what was actually happening when a fight landed on the ground.
“To go in and call fights is not easy to do. It’s very hard to do,” White said. “Rogan came and right off the bat started doing it. What was brilliant about Joe and why he was so instrumental in helping us build this sport, nobody was ever going to f*cking understand the ground game.
“Rogan would walk you through in detail while it was happening, he would be one step ahead of the fighter actually as it was taking place, walking you through … and Rogan would f*cking lay it out. We couldn’t have hired anybody else that would have done it.”
White also considers Rogan a true fan of the sport, which comes across during the broadcasts and that makes a real difference with both the audience and the fighters competing in the octagon.
“Every time you would see him on camera and he would be talking about the fights that night, you knew — you felt it in your fcking soul this guy was not a paid talking head,” White said. “This motherfcker loves this shit. It came through at every event that we did.”
There have been times in the past where Rogan has openly contemplated stepping away from the UFC, especially when rigorous travel got to be too much for him.
As a result, Rogan now only calls domestic pay-per-view events but he doesn’t travel outside the United States and he only works those major cards that take place 12 to 13 times per year.
Judging by White’s comments, he’s going to do everything possible to ensure that Rogan continues calling fights as long as he’s involved with the UFC.
“It was meant to be,” White said about working with Rogan. “This relationship with me and Rogan and all the other things that have come together in my life and his life and other people’s lives, it’s f*cking crazy when you think about it.
“Rogan is the best to ever do it. The best to ever do it.”
He’s been great for the UFC