Tag: Joe Rogan

Ilia Topuria denies Joe Rogan’s claim he turned down Alexander Volkanovski rematch for UFC 305

Ilia Topuria rejects Joe Rogan’s notion that he turned down an offer to rematch Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 305 in Australia.

[autotag]Ilia Topuria[/autotag] rejects the notion that he turned down a rematch with [autotag]Alexander Volkanovski[/autotag] at UFC 305 in Australia.

With the octagon headed back to Perth for a pay-per-view event on Aug. 18 and Topuria (15-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) not having a fight scheduled for his first featherweight title defense, longtime UFC commentator [autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag] recently stated that a rematch with Volkanovski (26-4 MMA, 13-3 UFC) was presented to the champion.

“I don’t know who he wants to fight next,” Rogan said during a conversation with Max Holloway on a recent episode of the “JRE MME Show” podcast. “But I guess he feels like he’s the champ, he can call the shots. I know that he turned down the Perth one – 305, the Volkanovski rematch.”

Topuria defeated Volkanovski by second-round knockout at UFC 298 in February to become 145-pound champion. Given Volkanovski’s resume during his stint on top, many, including himself, believed an immediate rematch was in order. But with Volkanovski taking a second consecutive knockout loss in the fight after being defeated by Islam Makhachev in October, there was a belief Volkanovski should take a long layoff, which opened the door for another contender.

Holloway charged through that door at UFC 300 when he knocked out Justin Gaethje in spectacular fashion to claim the BMF title, and all signs point to a showdown with Topuria, which Volkanovski said he thinks “Blessed” will win with ease.

Topuria clearly caught wind of these narratives, evident by the fact that he issued a response Wednesday on social media, sternly denying Rogan’s claim and poking fun at Volkanovski for his prediction of a Holloway fight (via X and Instagram):

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6bwmdgs1Fx/

Now it remains to be seen what comes next for Topuria. He’s insisted Holloway must put the BMF title on the line too when they meet for the featherweight strap and has once again emphasized it’s a non-negotiable term, otherwise he will push to defend against Brian Ortega instead.

Holloway was amused by Topuria’s latest comments, and issued a fiery reply (via X):

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Joe Rogan calls Max Holloway’s UFC 300 finish of Justin Gaethje ‘the greatest knockout of all time’

Joe Rogan has witnessed a lot in his time as a UFC commentator, but no knockout tops what Max Holloway did to Justin Gaethje at UFC 300.

[autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag] has witnessed a lot of great things happen in the octagon during his long tenure as UFC commentator. But for him, no knockout tops what [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] did to Justin Gaethje at UFC 300.

Holloway (26-7 MMA, 22-7 UFC) claimed the BMF title in the most spectacular way possible this past Saturday when he knocked Gaethje (25-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) out cold with one second remaining in Round 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Despite being moments away from a unanimous decision victory on the scorecards, Holloway opted to point to the middle of the cage as the clock winded down for a brawl with Gaethje, who obliged before getting caught with a flush right hand that immediately slumped him.

It was a mind-boggling moment, and Rogan said on the UFC 300 broadcast that it was the single greatest knockout he’d ever seen when taking the entire scope of it into account.

“That’s the greatest knockout of all time,” Rogan said. “With so many people counting him out, with so many people thinking he was outgunned, with so many people thinking he wouldn’t have a chance against the firepower of Justin Gaethje, the fact that he called for that with 10 seconds left in the fight and put the lights out on one of the most dangerous men to ever fight in the sport.

“The fact that he did it this way, too, that he pointed to the center of the octagon, pointed to the floor and said, ‘Let’s thrown down right here’ and then sleeps Justin Gaethje with one punch. In a fight where a lot of people thought he was gonna get outgunned. Where a lot of people thought he was going to get hurt.”

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Holloway, a former longtime UFC featherweight champion, moved up to lightweight for the BMF title matchup with Gaethje. “Blessed” hadn’t fought in the division in exactly five years, and he lost his first appearance to Dustin Poirier at UFC 236 in April 2019.

The Hawaiian was given more time to prepare for UFC 300 than he did the Poirier fight, and it paid off. Holloway looked strong and fast inside the octagon in a brilliant performance that was capped off with a legendary highlight that earned him $600,000 in bonus money.

Rogan said he would’ve been very impressed with Holloway if that knockout had never happened and he won on the scorecards. He capped off the strong performance with an unforgettable moment, though, and Rogan said that only enhances Holloway’s legacy.

“He looked so good,” Rogan said. “But it’s all about giving Max the time to prepare for lightweight. He looked thicker, he looked denser, he put muscle on, and he prepared for a terrifying fighter. And he knew what he was going in against, and that’s what a guy like Max Holloway needs with all these years in the game. We’ve got to remember: Max Holloway is 32, but he was in here at 20 years old. And he needs something like that for us to see how great he truly is.

“Listen, Max Holloway is one of the greatest, if not the greatest featherweight of all time. And what you saw is that he’s one of the greatest fighters of all time, period. And he’s still 32. He’s in his prime right now. I think a lot of people forgot that. Those (Alexander) Volkanovski losses, I think a lot people said, ‘Ah, he’s done.’ But no, he’s better than ever. And he looked sensational.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.

Joe Rogan confused by people underestimating ‘f*cking dangerous’ Jamahal Hill at UFC 300

Joe Rogan thinks Jamahal Hill doesn’t get enough credit.

[autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Jamahal Hill[/autotag] doesn’t get enough credit.

Hill (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) challenges light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira (9-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC) in Saturday’s UFC 300 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The former UFC light heavyweight champion will look to reclaim the belt he vacated after tearing his achilles. Hill won the title with a beatdown of Pereira’s mentor Glover Teixeira at UFC 283 in January 2023.

“Jamahal Hill is f*cking dangerous,” Rogan said on the most recent episode of “The JRE MMA Show” podcast. “Watch the fight with Glover. He pieced Glover up, and Glover is f*cking good to piece him up like that on the feet. People underestimate (Hill) for some strange reason, and I don’t understand it. I’ve heard people talk about his power. Watch that Johnny Walker fight.

“He hit him in the forehead like he got hit by a sniper. He’s good. He’s f*cking dangerous. Jamahal’s a one-punch knockout striker at light heavyweight for sure. He’s a big, tall dude and he knows movement. He’s f*cking dangerous, man. A lot of people are picking Pereira to run him over, which I think is interesting. I’m not sure about that. I think this is going to be a great fight.”

According to BetMGM, Hill is a +120 underdog, meaning a $100 bet on the former champ would win $120 profit. Pereira is a -145 favorite, meaning a $145 bet on the champion would return $100 profit.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.

Joe Rogan amused by viral Sage Steele interview ‘flub’ with UFC CEO Dana White

Joe Rogan can relate to Sage Steele’s error of mixing him up with Dana White during her recent interview with the UFC CEO.

[autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag] isn’t interested in giving Sage Steele much grief for mixing him up with [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] during her recent interview with the UFC CEO.

Former ESPN anchor Steele went viral when, during a sit down interview with the longtime UFC boss, she asked him, “What’s Joe Rogan’s dream?”

White was instantly puzzled by the question, and called Steele out about whether she thought she was interviewing the famous UFC commentator and podcast host Rogan.

The exchange quickly spread around the internet, and many people have taken their chance to poke fun at Steele. As someone who has hosted countless podcast interviews and made his share of mistakes, though, Rogan wasn’t keen to pile on Steele. But he certainly found the incident amusing.

“People call me Dana – I’ve been called Dana before,” Rogan said on the most recent episode of “The JRE MMA Show” podcast. “People go, ‘Oh, it’s Dana!’ I go, ‘No, I’m the other dude.’ It happens all the time. I think she just made a mental flub. When you’re doing a podcast and you’re interviewing someone, especially if you haven’t done a lot of them and it’s a high-profile thing and you’re doing Dana White, you’re always thinking of what to say.

“Even the question is like, ‘What’s your dream?’ It’s not even it a crazy question. It’s like I don’t know what to ask you so I’m like, ‘What’s your dream?’ So she’s probably floundering there a little and doesn’t know what to say. It’s f*cking weird having a conversation live with someone in real time.”

Former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra was one of the guests on Rogan’s podcast where he reacted to the Steele interview, and he said he’s been mistaken for both Rogan and White in the past.

It’s not the first time this has happen, and it almost certainly won’t be the last. But Rogan credits Steel for standing by her mishap.

“She handled it the right way,” Rogan said. “She kept it in there. She didn’t edit it out. It’s funny. It’s just a flub. I do it all the time. It happens.”

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Joe Rogan: Robert Whittaker ‘a real fight’ for Khamzat Chimaev

Joe Rogan thinks Robert Whittaker will present a serious test for Khamzat Chimaev.

[autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag] thinks [autotag]Robert Whittaker[/autotag] will present a serious test for [autotag]Khamzat Chimaev[/autotag].

Chimaev (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) and former middleweight champion Whittaker (25-7 MMA, 16-5 UFC) will square off in a five-round headliner June 22 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The main card will air on ABC.

Whittaker is coming off an impressive win over Paulo Costa at UFC 298. Meanwhile, Chimaev hasn’t competed since outlasting former welterweight champ Kamaru Usman, who stepped in on 10 days’ notice to face “Borz” in a 185-pound bout at UFC 294.

“Whittaker vs. Khamzat Chimaev in Saudi Arabia, that one is going to be f*cking wild. That’s a wild one,” Rogan said on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” with Joey Diaz. “That is a wild fight. … Whittaker vs. Khamzat is legit. That’s a real fight. That’s a real fight for Khamzat because Whittaker is a big dude. He’s a big, solid, beefy 185, former champion. Both guys started at 170, but it was too hard to make the 170. That’s a real 185er.”

As accomplished as Usman is, Rogan doesn’t put too much stock in Chimaev’s win over him.

“They gave him Kamaru Usman and Kamaru didn’t have a chance to prepare for that,” Rogan said. “He had 10 days. That’s not enough time. I don’t know what kind of shape he was in. He’s always in shape, but famously, Kamaru has bad knees – like real bad knees. So I don’t know how hard he was training or whether or not he prepares. Maybe he only sacrifices his knees during training and then when he’s not training for a fight, he takes it easy, so he doesn’t stay in the same kind of shape. I know he was winning in the third round.

“If that was a five-round fight, who knows how the f*ck that fight would have went. Obviously, Kamaru is world-championship caliber, the best welterweight of all time by most people’s accounts. It’s not enough time. It’s not enough time to get a guy to prepare for Khamzat. At least we got a chance to see what Khamzat looks like against a world-class, world championship-caliber fighter. This is a big one. This is Robert Whittaker with plenty of time to prepare – a guy who is just as legit as they get (and) just beat Paulo Costa. That’s a good fight. I like that.”

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Oops! Watch a former ESPN anchor confuse Dana White for Joe Rogan in an all-time interview gaffe

Dana White and Joe Rogan are both rambunctious, bald white men with an affinity for the UFC, but that doesn’t make them the same person!

[autotag]Dana White[/autotag] and [autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag] are both rambunctious, bald white men with an affinity for the UFC, but that doesn’t make them the same person, Sage Steele!

Steele, a former ESPN anchor, welcomed White to “The Sage Steele Show” and spent more than an hour talking with the UFC CEO – touching on most of the same ol’ you’d expect from a Dana White podcast appearance – before arriving at her big final question and giving us an all-time interview gaffe.

As if to set up a dramatic moment, Steele adjusted how she was sitting on a sofa, leaned in to look White in his eyes, and asked him this in a soft-spoken voice:

“Last question: What’s Joe Rogan’s dream?”

Wanting to make sure he heard correctly, White repeated the question:

“What’s JOE ROGAN’S dream?”

At this moment, you could see the embarrassment forming on Steele’s face as she tried to play it off by sheepishly uttering both names:

“Joe Rogan … Dana White.”

The best part was the look White gave her once he realized what just happened:

“Did you just think I was Joe Rogan?

[Looks off camera] “She just called me f*ckin’ Joe Rogan.”

“You thought I was f*ckin’ Joe Rogan? I was bald before Joe was ever bald!”

What a blunder.

If you enjoyed that play-by-play, you’re going to love watching the embarrassing moment play out in real time.

You can watch here (marked at 1:19:12):

What makes this even funnier is that Steele began the interview by calling White “Joe” up front (via X). She was doomed from the start, lol.

Hey, I guess it could be worse.

Did Dana White seriously consider resigning from UFC during Joe Rogan-Spotify controversy in 2022?

“Joe Rogan has been very loyal to me, and I am very loyal to Joe Rogan,” Dana White said of the longtime UFC commentator.

For [autotag]Dana White[/autotag], there’s no UFC without [autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag].

Rogan, the popular podcast host and longtime UFC commentator, was under fire in early 2022 when he was accused of spreading COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” which was exclusive to Spotify at the time. An outraged Neil Young demanded that his music be removed from Spotify in protest of Rogan remaining on the streaming platform.

Around the same time, Rogan also had a montage video of him using the N-word resurface online and, as a result, Rogan was absent from his commentary duties for UFC 271. Appearing on Lex Fridman’s podcast, White was asked about Rogan amid the controversy and how he apparently threatened to resign if Rogan could no longer commentate UFC fights.

Now, White never said those words himself but thanked Fridman for calling him a good man.

“Anybody who is with me, has been with me, knows, when you’re with me, you’re with me,” White said. “It’s a two-way street. It’s not a one-way street. I’m not one of these guys that is going to roll over. It’s like going through COVID. I wasn’t laying any of these people off. Some of these people have been with me for 20 years. We’re going to lay them off?

“This motherf*cker will burn – burn before I would do that to my people. It’s just never – none of that type of stuff is ever going to happen while I’m here. I can’t say what’s going to happen when I leave. But when I’m here, the people who are with me and have been with me, they know exactly what’s up. Joe knows what’s up, and again it’s a two-way street. Joe Rogan has been very loyal to me, and I am very loyal to Joe Rogan.”

Joe Rogan and Dana White in 2006. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Spike TV)

If White was serious about resigning to protect Rogan, it shows just how close their relationship is. One of the reasons White feels the way he does is because he will never forget Rogan standing by the UFC before it became a profitable business.

“It’s a fact he doesn’t care about money, and he did the first 13 shows free for us,” White said. “That was at a time when we were hurting and he was like, ‘Wait a minute, you want me to do the commentary? You’re saying I get to sit in the best seat in the house and watch these fights for free? Yeah, I’m in.’ Then obviously when we turned things around, we made it up to Joe, but Joe is one of the things I loved early about (the UFC).”

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UFC 299 commentary team, broadcast plans set: Lead PPV team with Joe Rogan gets first call of 2024

The UFC’s lead commentary team of Jon Anik, Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier will call its first card of 2024 at UFC 299 in Miami.

The third numbered UFC event of 2024 is rapidly approaching with UFC 299 on Saturday at Kaseya Center in Miami.

As always, some marquee on-air talent will be there to help guide viewers through the experience.

Details of who will be working as commentators and analysts for the show have been acquired by MMA Junkie through a person with knowledge of the plans – and you can see the scheduled broadcast team below.

UFC 298 commentary team, broadcast plans set: Michael Bisping joins Jon Anik, Joe Rogan in booth

Daniel Cormier won’t be on the call for UFC 298 and instead Michael Bisping will join Jon Anik and Joe Rogan as cageside commentators.

The second numbered UFC event of 2024 is rapidly approaching with UFC 298 on Saturday at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

As always, some marquee on-air talent will be there to help guide viewers through the experience.

Details of who will be working as commentators and analysts for the show have been acquired by MMA Junkie through a person with knowledge of the plans – and you can see the scheduled broadcast team below.

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Joe Rogan hates Justin Gaethje matchup for Max Holloway at UFC 300: Lightweights are too big

Joe Rogan is not a fan of the Justin Gaethje vs. Max Holloway matchup at UFC 300.

[autotag]Joe Rogan[/autotag] is not a fan of the [autotag]Justin Gaethje[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Max Holloway[/autotag] matchup at UFC 300.

Gaethje (25-4 MMA, 8-4 UFC) defends his BMF title against former featherweight champion Holloway (25-7 MMA, 21-7 UFC) on April 13 in Las Vegas.

Holloway competed once at 155 pounds in his UFC career when he lost a Fight of the Night war to Dustin Poirier for the interim title in April 2019. Poirier is coming off a knockout loss to Gaethje at UFC 291, and Rogan thinks Holloway may be too small for lightweight.

“You know what I hate? Max is a great ’45-pounder, but Dustin Poirier beat him up at ’55 pounds,” Rogan said during the UFC 297 episode of his Fight Companion on Spotify. “I think those guys are a little too big.”

Despite losing to featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski three times, Rogan thinks Holloway still is in the title picture. He sees Holloway losing luster if he’s unsuccessful against Gaethje, even if he’s competing at a weight class above.

“Max is right there in the hunt for the (featherweight) title,” Rogan said. “(When) Volkanovski gets done with (Ilia) Topuria, Max is a likely next fight. It’s a possibility. It’s 100 percent there.”

Holloway is is coming off back-to-back wins over Arnold Allen in April 2023, then a Fight of the Night knockout of Chan Sung Jung in June.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 300.