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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.

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Michael Chandler thinks there could finally be light at the end of the tunnel.

For nearly two years, Chandler has chased a fight with former two-division champion Conor McGregor, with nothing yet to show for it. The two were scheduled to fight at UFC 303 back in June, but McGregor ultimately withdrew due to a toe injury and the bout has yet to be rebooked.

But that could be changing soon as on Sunday, Chandler teased via his Instagram that a fight is in the works.

“Wheels in motion to bite down on that mouthpiece again… Bet on yourself, always.

“Walk On.

“See you at the top!”

Though Chandler doesn’t name McGregor outright, it’s likely any fight booking for the former Bellator lightweight champion will be against “Notorious.” Chandler has not shown any recent indication that he’s ready to move on to another opponent and both UFC CEO Dana White and Conor McGregor recently teased upcoming fight news for the the Irish superstar. That being said, it’s unclear if the fight will take place this year as White previously shot down the idea of McGregor competing in 2024.

McGregor has not competed in over three years. He last set foot in the octagon at UFC 264, where he suffered a catastrophic leg injury in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier. Chandler’s most recent opponent was also Poirier, losing via submission at UFC 281.

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After a lot of tension between the two men due to their history where they were set to meet inside the Octagon, UFC middleweights Brendan Allen and Marvin Vettori were involved in a brawl several weeks ago.

Sources reported that the Italian fighter had gotten into an altercation with UFC fighter Tuco Tokkos which Allen then intervened in, whilst they were in attendance at a PFL event.

The fight, which was captured on video, shows Allen going at “The Italian Dream” as both men traded blows.

They have exchanged comments on social media and in interviews multiple times before so this beef certainly didn’t come out of nowhere.

Zach Reese Says Online Trash Talking Isn’t For Him

In a recent interview with MMA News, UFC middleweight Zach Reese gave his thoughts on the viral brawl between Vettori and Allen.

The 30-year-old has got back-to-back wins in the 185-pound weight class.

Reese believes that whilst he understands that trash-talking is a big part of the sport today, it’s not something that he likes to partake in.

“Savage” has no problem saying what he thinks but he isn’t going to say anything that he can’t physically back up in person, as opposed to making comments from the other side of a screen.

“I don’t believe in jumping, I think that’s what’s gone down the world is that people won’t have one-on-one fist fights anymore and you know dude, if you talk s*** on the internet, I think talking s*** on the internet’s lame as f*** to be honest man. I don’t even know the whole backstory on that or who started it or whatever but there’s something in me as like a man, it’s just I don’t like the idea of talking s*** on the internet dude, it’s kind of weird. I know it’s kind of the name of the game in MMA and it gets the fans excited and stuff but yeah, if you talk crap to somebody man then you better be willing to face the consequences or say it to their face. Talk some s*** to the wrong person, they’ll punch you in the mouth.”

Read also: Khamzat Chimaev’s Former ‘Main Sparring Partner’ Caio Borralho Warns Robert Whittaker: ‘I Didn’t See Any Other Guy In My Life…’

Continue Reading UFC Middleweight On Brendan Allen – Marvin Vettori Casino Bust Up: ‘Talk Some S**t To The Wrong Person They’ll Punch You In The Mouth’ [Exclusive] at MMA News.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

From the mosh pit to bare-knuckle fighting.

Slaughter to Prevail frontman Alex Terrible — real name Aleksandr Shikolai — is putting down his microphone and preparing to throw hands after signing to fight with BKFC.

The Russian-born deathcore singer is expected to debut with the bare-knuckle fighting promotion before the end of the year, with plans to turn his attention to training after his band wraps up its current tour in September. He announced the news via Full Send MMA, with BKFC officials confirming the news to MMA Fighting.

“I’m just a musician, I’m not a fighter, I’m not a sportsman, or some shit,” Terrible said. “I’m just a regular dude who grew up in the streets. You call it in the hood. In Russia, if you grow up in a village, it is the hood. Then I found a boxing gym, I found myself in this f*cking boxing, a new passion.”

While nothing is set in stone just yet, Terrible is currently expected to make his BKFC debut in December.

The 30-year-old singer, who first rose to prominence making cover songs on YouTube, mentioned a social influencer turned fighter as a potential first opponent, but no deal has been struck just yet to make it official.

“We don’t know the opponent yet. I heard about one name, Bryce Hall,” Terrible said. “I really don’t care who it’s going to be.

“I just want to fight and I have nothing to lose because I’m a musician. If they put me against a fighter and if I knock him out, good. If he knocks me out, I don’t f*cking care. I just want to put on a good fight and show what I have in my heart. That’s it.”

His band Slaughter to Prevail is one of the fastest rising heavy metal outfits in the industry right now, with more than 1.1 million average listeners per month on Spotify.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Alexander Volkanovski only has eyes on getting the UFC featherweight title back.

The longtime champion at 145 pounds has been content to sit on the sidelines for much of 2024 following a knockout loss to Ilia Topuria at UFC 298 this past February. That defeat ended Volkanovski’s four-year reign atop the division and raised questions as to what would be next for him, given that he has now lost three of his past four fights (including two failed attempts to wrest the lightweight title from Islam Makhachev).

Volkanovski told Sky Sports New Zealand that he’s confident waiting for a chance to fight the winner of Topuria’s Oct. 26 title defense against Max Holloway at UFC 308 is the right move.

“That’s exactly what’s happening,” Volkanovski said. “So I can wait or if I don’t want to wait, I can do something else. Or just wait, and the UFC has made that clear. Obviously, that’s probably what I’m going to do.

“I could have maybe done a lightweight fight, I think there’s a lot of exciting fights there, but the UFC aren’t big fans of floating. Look, you want to go to lightweight, you’re going to have to probably stay there, that’s the only thing, and then I might lose that featherweight title shot. So I might just have to wait. It’s only a couple of months, I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

Though Volkanovski was defeated twice by Makhachev, their first encounter at UFC 284 was a thrilling five-round encounter that Makhachev edged out on the scorecards. Even if Volkanovski could likely book any number of marquee matchups at 155 pounds, he’s not leaving the featherweight division without one more title fight.

So does he expect to rematch Ilia, or face Holloway a fourh time after earning three previous victories over “Blessed?”

“Who would I rather fight?” Volkanovski said. “Obviously, Ilia’s got that one over me. I want that back. But at the end of the day, I want that belt back as well.

“And who do I think is going to win? Probably Max. But again, it’s a tough fight. Ilia’s got some hands on him, he’s not easily shook, he’s going to come forward, he’s going to be looking for the finish the whole way through that fight, but I think Max is just going to be a little bit too much for Ilia. But if Ilia walks through him, he’s proven himself, but then I’m just going to take it back off him anyway.”

Had Topuria vs. Holloway been booked before the final quarter of 2024, there’s a chance Volkanovski could have fought for the title before the end of the year, but as it stands he’s fine with how events played out. One thing he had made up his mind about is that he wouldn’t settle for fighting just for the sake of fighting.

“I was obviously aware of that [matchup] earlier on,” Volkanovski said. “I told them I wanted the break as I’ve been having, so I wanted to fight probably later in the year and they said they might be doing that. I thought it would have been a little bit earlier, but it ended up being at a date where I was like, ‘Well, I could have maybe come back here.’ But whatever, so everything is probably going to get pushed back a couple of months further than I would have liked, but at the same time I can’t be active and just fight anybody, or I can just wait for the title.”

“What gets me out of bed, just a contender fight at featherweight?” Volkanovski added. “It’s probably going to be hard. Look, I love to be active, but at the same time I need the right fights. It’s easy to be active and get the right fights while you’re champion because you’re defending against the No. 1 contenders. Very, very easy to stay active and have important fights. But me just taking a fight just to stay busy, it just doesn’t make sense.”

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Praise
| BJPenn.com

Kayla Harrison has big plans after UFC 307.

Harrison returns to action for her highly anticipated second UFC fight against No. 2 ranked Bantamweight Ketlen Vieira next month at UFC 307, which goes down inside Vivint Arena in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is headlined by Light Heavyweight champion Alex Pereira vs. Khalil Roundtree.

It was pretty confusing that Harrison wasn’t given a title shot after dismantling Holly Holm at UFC 300 (watch highlights). Instead, she had to wait for the winner of Raquel Pennington vs. Julianna Pena, which will co-headline UFC 307.

While her sole focus is Brazil’s Vieira, Harrison will be ready to step in on less than a minute’s notice if one of the Bantamweight co-main eventers falls out.

“If one of those b—ches gets sick or hurt or injured, I will take that fight on 30 seconds notice. I’m ready. Best in the world, I’m ready. So let’s go… where’s Tanya Harding when you need her?” Harrison laughed while telling Grind City Media’s John Morgan recently.

With a win, Harrison is no doubt next in line for the title, and she doesn’t have a preference, although she would like to maim Pena (possibly because of these comments).

“I mean, honestly, to have a preference would mean that I have an emotion,” Harrison said. “I don’t care. I really do not care. Like, the goal is the belt. But if we’re talking about Kayla, the psychopath, like, of course, I would rather put an elbow through Juliana’s skull than Raquel’s. Like, Juliana’s face is annoying. Of course, I would pick that face like, of course.”

UFC 307 goes down on Oct. 5, 2024.

To checkout UFC’s upcoming schedule of events click here.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts