There’s a long list of great color commentators who have called boxing matches and MMA fights but Dana White believes there’s one person who stands heads and shoulders above the crowd.
Ever since he first debuted with the UFC as a backstage interviewer all the way back in 1997, Joe Rogan has been a mainstay with the promotion. These days he’s the lead color commentator for most of the major pay-per-view broadcasts and the UFC CEO offered him high praise when addressing Rogan’s contributions to combat sports.
“I consider him the greatest to ever do it,” White told the 2 Bears, 1 Cave podcast. “F*ck all these guys that have ever done any type of commentating on combat sports before this. Rogan is by far [the best].”
While there’s obviously subjectivity when calling anybody the greatest of all-time, White explained one of the many reasons why he believes Rogan has cemented himself at the top — at least where MMA is involved.
When Rogan first started calling fights for the UFC after Zuffa purchased the organization back in 2001, MMA was barely a blip on the overall sports radar. Fans tuning into watch a UFC broadcast didn’t really understand all the nuances of the sport but especially when it came to the ground game that blended wrestling, striking and grappling.
White credits Rogan with finding a way to explain those positions to a general audience that didn’t know the first thing about what was actually happening when a fight landed on the ground.
“To go in and call fights is not easy to do. It’s very hard to do,” White said. “Rogan came and right off the bat started doing it. What was brilliant about Joe and why he was so instrumental in helping us build this sport, nobody was ever going to f*cking understand the ground game.
“Rogan would walk you through in detail while it was happening, he would be one step ahead of the fighter actually as it was taking place, walking you through … and Rogan would f*cking lay it out. We couldn’t have hired anybody else that would have done it.”
White also considers Rogan a true fan of the sport, which comes across during the broadcasts and that makes a real difference with both the audience and the fighters competing in the octagon.
“Every time you would see him on camera and he would be talking about the fights that night, you knew — you felt it in your f*cking soul this guy was not a paid talking head,” White said. “This motherf*cker loves this shit. It came through at every event that we did.”
There have been times in the past where Rogan has openly contemplated stepping away from the UFC, especially when rigorous travel got to be too much for him.
As a result, Rogan now only calls domestic pay-per-view events but he doesn’t travel outside the United States and he only works those major cards that take place 12 to 13 times per year.
Judging by White’s comments, he’s going to do everything possible to ensure that Rogan continues calling fights as long as he’s involved with the UFC.
“It was meant to be,” White said about working with Rogan. “This relationship with me and Rogan and all the other things that have come together in my life and his life and other people’s lives, it’s f*cking crazy when you think about it.
“Rogan is the best to ever do it. The best to ever do it.”
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