“When You’re With Me, You’re With Me’

Dana White is endlessly loyal to Joe Rogan.

The longtime UFC commentator and well-liked podcaster made his promotional debut at UFC 12 in 1997, years earlier than White and the Fertitta brothers bought the UFC for $2 million. Nevertheless, it was White who gave Rogan his first shot on the commentary desk, reserving the then-Worry Issue host for UFC 37.5 (yeah, that’s a factor) in 2002.

20 years later, Rogan discovered himself in a heap of scorching water after multiple clips of him using racial slurs emerged on-line. Requires Rogan’s cancellation grew, notably as a number of music artists pulled their catalogs from Spotify — which had an unique cope with Rogan then.

Throughout a current interview with Lex Fridman, Dana White revealed that the UFC’s mum or dad firm had thought-about giving Rogan the boot amid rising backlash. White made it clear that if he had been compelled to dismiss Rogan, they’d have to seek out themselves a brand new UFC CEO as nicely.

“Anyone who’s with me, has been with me, is aware of,” White mentioned. “Whenever you’re with me, you’re with me. It’s a two-way avenue. It’s not a one-way avenue. I’m not considered one of these guys that’s gonna roll over.

“It’s like going by means of COVID. I wasn’t laying [off] any of those individuals,” he continued. “A few of these individuals have been with me for 20 years. We’re gonna lay ‘em off? Uh uh. This motherf*cker will burn, burn earlier than I might do this to my individuals. It’s simply by no means — none of that kind of stuff is ever going to occur whereas I’m right here. I can’t say what’s gonna occur once I go away, however once I’m right here, the people who find themselves with me and have been with me they know precisely what’s up, and Joe is aware of what’s up. It’s a two-way avenue. Joe Rogan has been very loyal to me, and I’m very loyal to Joe Rogan.”

Joe Rogan labored his first 13 UFC occasions without spending a dime

Sharing some perception into his relationship with Rogan and the ride-or-die friendship they share, White shared that Rogan labored his first 13 occasions as a commentator without spending a dime whereas the promotion was nonetheless working to turn out to be worthwhile.

“It’s a undeniable fact that he doesn’t care about cash and he did the primary 13 exhibits free for us,” White mentioned. “That was at a time once we had been hurting and he was like, ‘Wait a minute. You need me to do the commentary? You’re saying I get to take a seat in the very best seat in the home and watch these fights without spending a dime? Yeah, I’m in.’ Then, clearly, when he turned issues round, we made it as much as Joe, however Joe is likely one of the issues I liked early about [the UFC].”

As we speak, Joe Rogan has a web value of roughly $200 million. In February, it was revealed that Rogan had signed a new deal multi-year deal with Spotify value an estimated $250 million.

In February 2022, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek denounced the host’s use of racist language however mentioned, “I don’t consider that silencing Joe is the reply.”