A new GOAT debate has just dropped as White is pushing Rogan as the best commentator across all combat sports to ever do it.
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.