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Featured Image Credit: YouTube.com/PowerfulJRE
Ryan Baldi
When Elon Musk challenged Vladimir Putin to a fight in 2022, Joe Rogan offered to help the South African billionaire.
In a post on Twitter – now X, the social media platform owned by the Tesla and Space X head honcho – Musk challenged the Russian president to "single combat" with Ukraine's freedom as the prize.
"I hereby challenge Владимир Путин (Vladimir Putin) to single combat," Musk wrote in a post dated 14 March 2022. "Stakes are Україна (Ukraine)."
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Almost three years on, Musk is now a key advisor to US president Donald Trump, who has backed Putin and blamed Ukraine for the ongoing war in the region.
Both Trump and Musk were guests on Joe Rogan's podcast last year in the lead-up to November's presidential election.
The Joe Rogan Experience – which the UFC commentator started in 2009 – is one of the most popular podcasts in the world. With more than 19 million YouTube subscribers and downloads figures that regularly surpass 11 million per episode, the JRE often resides at the top of the Spotify charts.
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In 2020, Rogan signed $100 million deal to grant Spotify exclusive rights to the show. And the two parties renewed their agreement last year in a deal that reportedly pocketed the American stand-up comedian $250 million.
The reach and influence of Rogan and his show is such that he was credited with having a significant hand in Trump's election victory after featuring the 45th and now 47th president on the show and officially endorsing the Republican candidate through a post shared to X on the eve of the national poll.
Last year's appearance on the JRE wasn't Musk's first. And when Rogan learned of the world's richest man's offer to fight Putin back in 2022, he claimed on a separate episode of his podcast that he texted the Tesla CEO, offering to arrange his training.
"Elon Musk wants – he wants to fight Putin. Have you seen that?" Rogan asked his podcast guest, the Australian comedian Monty Franklin.
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"I offered my services. I texted him. I said, 'Dude I will arrange all of your training.'
"'If you really do fight Putin,' I said, 'I will arrange all your training.'
"It would be so f***ing epic."