The longtime UFC commentator and popular podcaster made his promotional debut at UFC 12 in 1997, years before White and the Fertitta brothers purchased the UFC for $ 2 million. However, it was White who gave Rogan his first shot at the commentary table, booking the then-Fear Factor host for UFC 37.5 (yeah, that’s a thing) in 2002.
20 years later, Rogan found himself in a heap of hot water after multiple clips of him using racial slurs emerged online. Calls for Rogan’s cancellation grew, particularly as multiple music artists pulled their catalogs from Spotify — which had an exclusive deal with Rogan then.
During a recent interview with Lex Fridman, Dana White revealed that the UFC’s parent company had considered giving Rogan the boot amid growing backlash. White made it clear that if he had been forced to dismiss Rogan, they’d have to find themselves a new UFC CEO as well.
“Anybody who is with me, has been with me, knows,” White said. “When you’re with me, you’re with me. It’s a two-way street. It’s not a one-way street. I’m not one of these guys that is gonna roll over.
“It’s like going through COVID. I wasn’t laying [off] any of these people,” he continued. “Some of these people have been with me for 20 years. We’re gonna lay ‘em off? Uh uh. 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 gonna 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, and Joe knows what’s up. It’s a two-way street. Joe Rogan has been very loyal to me, and I am very loyal to Joe Rogan.”
Joe Rogan worked his first 13 UFC events for free
Sharing some insight into his relationship with Rogan and the ride-or-die friendship they share, White shared that Rogan worked his first 13 events as a commentator for free while the promotion was still working to become profitable.
“It’s a fact that 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 he turned things around, we made it up to Joe, but Joe is one of the things I loved early about [the UFC].”
Today, Joe Rogan has a net worth of roughly $ 200 million. In February, it was revealed that Rogan had signed a new deal multi-year deal with Spotify worth an estimated $ 250 million.
In February 2022, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek denounced the host’s use of racist language but said, “I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.”
Rose Namajunas has a UFC career most fighters would dream of, but the lead-up to her most recent outing was literally the stuff of nightmares.
“Thug Rose” scored an important win this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 89, outpointing Amanda Ribas in the main event to snap the first losing streak of her career and score her first win at 125 pounds. The former strawweight champion was on a two-fight skid dating back to November 2021, and she admitted the unfamiliar situation caused her considerable stress.
That stress manifested itself in the form of troubling dreams, which Namajunas discussed on The MMA Hour. In these dreams, Namajunas pictured herself losing a trio of bouts under bizarre circumstances, including a last-second switch that saw her facing a male opponent instead of Ribas.
“Leading up to the fight, too, I have really vivid dreams a lot of the time,” Namajunas said. “Sometimes I’ll be able to visualize the fight, and for this one, I never had this happen before, but I literally saw in my dreams I lost the fight three times.
“The first two times, there was unfair circumstances. One, I got robbed, and then the first time it was like — this sounds crazy, but I was supposed to go fight her and then at the last second they switched it to a dude. So I had to fight a dude and then I was getting beat up, and then all of a sudden I ended up falling into a rear-naked choke and finishing the person, but they still gave it to them. So that was weird. I was like, that doesn’t make any sense.
“The third dream that I had — nightmare, I should say — I had the feeling that I lost but I don’t remember what happened in the fight and I was just trying to piece it together. It was just that post-loss feeling in the locker room, where it just sucks. I was like, ‘Did I get knocked out? Did I get choked out? What happened?’ So that was weighing on me a bunch leading into it. I feel like I’ve got divine visions in my dreams a lot of the time, but I’ve also had spiritual attacks in my dreams too, so I had to discern what was real and what wasn’t. I had to keep telling myself, ‘That has no bearing. I’m just going to do it anyways and it has no bearing on the outcome.’”
According to Namajunas, the dreams started about a month before the Ribas fight and continued on a weekly basis. It got to the point that she wondered if the universe was giving her some sort of warning or perhaps even telling her not to step into the cage.
Fortunately for Namajunas, she’s had experience with vivid, fight-related dreams, including ahead of her first championship fight with Zhang Weili at UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Fla. Namajunas defeated Zhang via a spectacular head kick in the first round to become a two-time strawweight champion.
“I believe in spiritual warfare and battles, and I believe that I’m here to let my light shine,” Namajunas said. “So there’s been lots of forces to me that I feel like I’m fighting something that’s not just my opponent, like it’s beyond our capability of understanding. I just feel like that was just an attack, because I’ve been making so many changes in my real life and I’ve been really disciplined, and I haven’t been doing anything dumb or anything like that, and I’ve been really in control of myself, that now it’s like, maybe I’m susceptible in my dreams. I don’t know. That’s just my way of interpreting it, I guess.
“Leading up to the first Weili fight, I had a dream that I was walking around. It was the week of the fight, we were walking around wherever we were fighting and somebody walked up to me and stopped me and he was like, ‘Hey, don’t have this fight.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ I got so scared. I was like, ‘Why? Something bad’s going to happen?’ And they were like, ‘I don’t know. Just don’t have this fight.’ And then all of a sudden [Namajunas’ fiancé and coach Pat Barry] got in the way and he was like, ‘Don’t talk to her. Get away from her,’ and just kind of like pushed them away. Then I woke up.
“So that had me worried leading up to that fight, to where it really motivated me because I was like, ‘I’m going to have this fight anyways.’ It really motivated me to make sure I’m ready 100 percent. It just had me on my toes more, so I think that’s kind of how I interpreted the dreams as like, maybe I’m going to do it anyways, I’m just going to make sure I’m ready.”
Namajunas spoke to Barry, her coaches, her team, and close friends about the dreams, which helped her to process them in her mind, which was important as she sought to avoid an unprecedented third straight loss and an 0-2 mark in her new weight class.
Defeating Ribas went a long way toward putting Namajunas back on track, both in the eyes of the matchmakers and herself, and she’s already targeting another pair of ranked opponents. With flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko occupied for the foreseeable future as they prepare for a trilogy bout after serving as coaches on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter, Namajunas is back in the mix among potential challengers for the winner of that grudge match.
“I’ve always believed in myself, I know who I am, but sometimes you just doubt,” Namajunas said. “I was definitely doubting. So now I feel like I have my confidence back and I feel like now I can build off of whatever it is that I did. I’m very excited to start making plans for the future, for whatever’s next. I’m definitely going to be watching the girls [in the main event of UFC Atlantic City] this weekend, Manon [Fiorot] and Erin [Blanchfield]. I’m excited.”
Is Nick Diaz about to make a return? The Stockton native made a social media post on Sunday seemingly teasing that something is in the works.
“Somebody is gonna pay very soon,” Diaz wrote on Instagram accompanied by a video of him training.
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The older of the Diaz brothers returned to the octagon after more than six years away in September 2021 in a rematch with Robbie Lawler. In their first meeting back at UFC 47 in April 2004, Diaz knocked Lawler out. 17 years later, Lawler stopped Diaz in the third round.
It may not have been the last time we’ll see Diaz inside the octagon. Days before he made the “Somebody is gonna pay soon” post, Diaz shared a photo looking to be in incredible shape.
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While he was active, Diaz fought for the UFC welterweight title and interim belt. His last three fights, although separated by years, were against three former champions: Lawler, Anderson Silva, and Georges St-Pierre. It’s been a decade since Diaz has won won a fight but he remains a fan favorite.
Maycee Barber didn’t get much time to celebrate her UFC 299 win.
That’s because she ended up in the hospital to battle a nasty infection and eventually contracted pneumonia as well.
Barber revealed the news on Instagram, detailing her harrowing experience with a fever that developed due to the infection and how doctors struggled to discover what exactly was wrong. The 25-year-old flyweight prospect admitted there were moments when she felt like she might not recover as one day faded into the next while laying in her hospital bed.
“Following my fight, I spent nine days in the hospital being tested and treated for an infection that they thought were a mix of different things from Strep A to Staph,” Barber wrote. “Being in the hospital and still not having a true definitive answer while battling a 105 degree fever for days, having extremely low blood pressure, HR, and oxygen, was incredibly hard.
“Despite having multiple IV antibiotics and medications over the course of several days, they were unable to get my fever to drop, which eventually led to me developing pneumonia. It definitely wasn’t what I had planned and was honestly very scary at times. There were a few moments where I wasn’t sure if I was going to be okay, but I know that whatever happens was meant to happen and that it’s all just another piece of the puzzle of life.”
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Based on her post, Barber was admitted to the hospital on March 12, which was just three days after her win over Katlyn Cerminara in Miami.
It appears Barber is still dealing with the illness, although she hinted that she’s been released from the hospital after initially seeking treatment.
In her most recent performance, Barber picked up the biggest win of her career by taking out a former title challenger in Cerminara, which marked her sixth consecutive victory in a row.
The performance moved Barber one step closer to title contention, but it remains to be seen if this health scare may keep her out of action for an extended period of time or not.
A lot of fighters dream about biting their rivals, even UFC champions, but flyweight up-and-comer Igor Severino went one step further and actually chomped down on opponent Andre Lima, leading to a disqualification finish at UFC Vegas 89 last weekend in “Sin City.”
Regulators were not amused.
Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) withheld the Brazilian’s purse and is expected to hand down both a fine and suspension at next month’s meeting, according to MMA Fighting. In addition, Severino was immediately cut by UFC CEO Dana White.
Lima has since petitioned UFC to reconsider.
Severino (8-1), just 20 years old, captured a UFC contract with his breakout performance on Dana White’s “Contender Series” last fall and was expected to become a major player at 125 pounds. Instead, he’ll join the not-so-illustrious list of UFC fighters banned for life.
For more news and notes from the UFC Vegas 89 fight card click here and here.
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