When you think about the Mixed Martial Arts as a sport, you cannot help but think about the biggest promotion for MMA, the UFC. Why is that? Because the UFC is the first mainstream MMA organization in the USA and it is recognized in the 90s as the number one ranked promotion in the USA. How did the UFC become so popular?
Firstly, it is a very easy answer. Money. The popularity of the promotion raises by a great percentage since Zuffa, a subsidiary of Endeavor Group Holdings, buys it in 2001. They invest a bunch of money and not surprisingly, it pays off. In order to make big money, you need big money to start off.
Dana White Supports Joe Rogan For The Viral Controversial Video – Why Are Dana White And Joe Rogan So Important For The UFC?
Secondly, by promotion of worthy fighters only. You might have noticed. The UFC is not using or promoting fighters that do not meet some standards or requirements. Usually, these standards are that the fighters need to be representative, extremely skilled, need to know how to trash-talk, how to create a great show, and lastly, they have to have already acquired some public.
Finally, most of the success that the UFC has acquired through the years is to be merit to Dana White, and his most loyal commentary, Joe Rogan.
Dana White is the best promoter in fighting history. And for this, you have the deeds to do the talking. He is absolutely obsessing around the sport and his excitement for the bouts that he organizes is legit. He took the UFC and made a name for it. It is the only MMA promotion that reached a level of popularity close to boxing. Because of him, the MMA is a legit sport. Under him, the MMA switched from a ‘Neanderthal’ primitive fighting to a legitimate sport with rules, training regimen, and professional athletes.
Joe Rogan on the other hand brought extreme popularity to the UFC promotion. At first with his commentary style through the years, becoming one of the iconic voices of the UFC. And secondly, by featuring UFC stars on his podcast which happens to be extremely popular. These details and the fact alone that he, as famous as he is, works for the UFC gains a lot of popularity to the promotion.
These two are extremely fond of each other. They have the utmost respect for one another for the work that they’ve done for the mixed martial arts. So naturally, when the public tries to do some form of defamation against Joe Rogan, his buddy Dana White immediately jumps in his defense.
The controversy now is the use of the N-word throughout the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. Someone has put together a clip, of all situations during the whole podcast where the UFC Commentary is using the N-word.
Imagine the amount of concentration and hard work needed to do so. First, you need to have watched all episodes of the podcast. Secondly, you had to watch them with attention. And finally, imagine the nerves and the amount of time that one needs to put this all together. It is incredible. So, it can be concluded that the clip is put together by someone who has really something against the commentary.
The person who created the clip has shared it with India Arie. And after she re-shared it, it gained worldwide popularity. People find it stunning, it meant instant defamation of Joe.
Since then, the podcaster has publicly apologized several times. He states that his words are taken out of context. That the word is not used in a negative connotation at all. Joe explained that the damage is done now and there is no going back from it. However, he assures everybody that he has never been disrespectful to his African American people in general.
Dana White came out with a comment on this saying: “When Joe said it, you have to put it into context. He wasn’t dropping it; Joe was saying, he was explaining what other people had said, but he was saying the word. He apologized for it over and over again. So everybody that knows Joe, is aware that he is not that kind of a person.”
The UFC Mega star Israel Adesanya defends Joe Rogan as well. At the end of the press conference right after the video ‘leaks’, he supported the commentary by saying that he truly is not like he is presented in the video.
“First off, let me take this one. Hold up. I’m Black. I can take this one. Look, there are a lot of cunts in this game. There are a lot of snakes in this game. I’ve been in this fighting game since 2008. Joe Rogan is one of the nicest, coolest, humble motherfuckers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Understand that. Fuck the noise! You know what they’re trying to do. You can’t control the man, and he’s got the biggest platform in the world right now. That’s my nigga Joe Rogan. Fuck the noise. Do what I said, fuck the noise. Keep doing you, Joe. Have some mushrooms, keep doing you.” – He finishes his speech.
And there is nothing that we can add here. It was obvious. They tried to shift the eyes of the public from his podcast and his word. However, they did quite the opposite.
Joe Rogan still continues with his podcast and as a result of the ‘fame’ over this, he gains more than 2 million subscribers. So there’s that.
What are your thoughts on the video of Joe using the N-word? Is the situation really as it is presented? Do you consider Joe to be racist?
