Topics: Joe Rogan, UFC, Dana White
Joe Rogan has claimed he tried to stop Dana White from making a a huge mistake, insisting the UFC 'f**ked up'.
Rogan has been pals with UFC CEO White for almost 30 years, having first worked for the MMA promotion in 1997 when he had a different job to his current commentary gig.
White has completely transformed the UFC since purchasing the company in 2001, creating a multi-billion powerhouse that is recognised worldwide.
The 55-year-old has since ventured into other businesses and recently teamed up with influential Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh to form a new boxing promotion, which will sit under the TKO banner, which owns the UFC and WWE.
Advert
He also launched Power Slap in late 2022 after watching slapping videos on social media.
The sport, however, has not taken off in the way which he imagined and has come under fire by experts over potential brain damage.
White has often defended the slapping promotion and once claimed that it has 'more followers than every single professional sport,' before being corrected.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan reckons White and the UFC 'f**ked up' by creating Power Slap, claiming they should have got into kickboxing.
"I think the UFC f**ked up when they went with slap fighting. I’ve been telling them forever, 'You guys should get into kickboxing'," he said in a recent episode.
"If you only like stand-up fights, it’s not like the old days of kickboxing, where they were boring. The knockouts are f**king crazy."
On kickboxing, Rogan added: "Kickboxing with MMA gloves in a cage would be giant. Just have a striking-only segment of the UFC. Glory’s got some elite fighters. I watch Glory all the time. It’s f**king exciting, but nobody’s watching it. Nobody knows who these people are."
As the podcaster mentioned, Glory is the No.1 kickboxing promotion and houses the best kickboxers on the planet, including Dutch star Rico Verhoeven, who has previously trained with Tom Aspinall and Tyson Fury.
Alex Pereira also fought under the Glory banner before transitioning into MMA, where he became a two-weight UFC champion, winning the middleweight and light-heavyweight titles.
The kickboxing promotion, however, predominately operate in the Netherlands and isn't as well known as the UFC.
But Rogan seems to suggest that kickboxing could have reached similar levels to the UFC had White got involved with the sport.
