Dana White has revealed that for the first chapter of his UFC career, Joe Rogan commentated on events for free.
For the longest time now, Joe Rogan has been a mainstay in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He’s been one of the defining voices in the promotion and as we look ahead to the future, it doesn’t seem like he’s planning on hanging up his microphone anytime soon.
Joe has been around since the early days of the UFC, and as such, he has a pretty good relationship with UFC CEO Dana White.
In a recent podcast appearance, White revealed the extent of Rogan’s loyalty.
White praises Rogan
“Joe Rogan was talking about how bad ass UFC fighters were and what they would really do to some of these karate guys that were in movies and s*** like that. I was like man, this guy knows what he’s talking about. He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s articulate. So, I reached out to Rogan. At that time I think it was on the internet, we started talking and I asked him if he would like to work for us and be a commentator.”
“If you look at where the UFC was at that time, we were losing money like crazy. We bought it for $2 million which sounds like a great story now, we ended up being almost $40 million in the hole before we turned it around. But Joe Rogan did like the first 12 or 13 shows for free. He said f*** yeah, I’ll come there and do it and sit in the best seats in the house and everything else. So, Joe and I have been super close friends for a very long time. I would do anything for Joe Rogan.”
That’s why you got it for $2MM Dana.
Because making it work would cost a bunch of money that SEG didn’t have or want to pay.
This is how distressed businesses work. This is what a lot of private equity does. Buy companies, use resources and knowledge to grow companies, sell companies for profit.
Dana over here always sharing his rags to riches story like it isn’t something that happens daily in every industry as a normal course of business.
And I’d do Rogan’s job for free right now. The access alone at the going UFC ticket rate would be like having a $500,000/year salary.
thats back when joe used to post here
Please Hire McTTT
This might have been because the UFC was a new and unproven organization back then, struggling financially. Rogan, likely believing in the potential of the sport, might have been willing to work for free to help establish the UFC.
This is a well known fact. Dana is just repeating old news to the new generation of fans.
Its kinda of odd that Conor, McCarthy, and Dana to name a few have been lately praising Rogan tbh.
hang on, Dana is saying he brought Rogan in? i thought joe was an interviewer backstage long before the zuffa era, therefore already had his feet under the table… and his role grew from there. have i got that wrong?
Dana seems to be saying he was unconnected to the ufc, just knew about it and was publicly supportive… so he was the one who spotted him and brought him onto the team. wahey, look what a star he is now, thanks Dana.
the ufc is obviously a massive building block in Joe’s success, but I’m borderline certain he wasn’t talent-spotted by Dana the way this article implies.
100% why minimum wage laws are stupid
I didn’t even read OP cuz I’m tired of Dana’s BS through the years, but you are right, Joe used to interview fighters before fights before being a commentator. That doesn’t mean that Dana didn’t promoted him as commentator for free though
The UFC wouldn’t be where it is now if it wasn’t for Joe.
I’d love to see Goldy and Bruce Beck get a nice check in the mail for their contributions and Jeff Blatnick’s family too.
Joe got fed up with UFC before he did with the UG
I’m not saying Dana didn’t promote him. he could well have done. but do consider reading the article lol Dana says he reached out to Joe over the internet. he’s not even saying there were no prior ties, he’s just framing it in a way that could lead to a favourable misunderstanding.