Joe Rogan has confirmed the long-standing report that his UFC contract includes a clause which will see him instantly leave along with Dana White.
The duo have been close friends for decades since Rogan first agreed to commentate on UFC events after White took over the promotion with the Fertitta Brothers. The comedian even initially turned down White’s advances, before eventually taking the job.
Now, Rogan is forever contractually tied to the UFC boss, who has taken on something of a lighter role in the UFC itself in recent years. He is still the company’s face and CEO, but he focuses a lot of his time on other endeavors such as Power Slap and TKO’s new boxing outfit.
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Joe Rogan confirms fabled ‘Dana White clause’ in his UFC contract
It has long been discussed, by Joe Rogan and others, that if for some reason Dana White were to ever leave the UFC that the commentator would instantly follow suit. And during a recent appearance on Gary Brecka’s Ultimate Human podcast, Rogan confirmed as much to be true.
“There are rumors that you and Dana have been so loyal to one another that your contract in the UFC says that if one goes you both go,” Brecka asked, to which Rogan replied: “That’s mine, yeah. If they get rid of him I am gone.
“He’s an awesome dude, I love him to death, he’s just a great guy and the perfect guy to be at the head of such a chaotic sport. The sport is so crazy that you need a maniac to be at the helm of it… He doesn’t give a f—, he really doesn’t.
“He has real ‘f— you’ money and I’ve always said that if you have ‘f– you’ money and don’t say ‘f— you’ then you’re wasting all that ‘f— you’ money. The only reason to have it is to be able to do what you actually want and the guy loves fights.”
Joe Rogan once turned down Dana White’s offer to join UFC
However, it wasn’t always that way. While Rogan was considerably more than a casual fan of the sport, he wanted to simply attend the events as a celebrity guest and watch with his friends, and initially turned down White’s offer to commentate.
“Dana and I became friends because he would invite celebrities to come,” Rogan continued. “And this is when I was hosting Fear Factor… He and I would get together and I would go, ‘What about this fight? Do you know about this guy?’ I was naming all these different fighters.
“He goes, ‘Would you do commentary?’ And I go, ‘I don’t wanna work man, I just want to come and watch fights’, I’d already done it before and it wasn’t getting money in my pocket. I did the first 13 or 14 of them for free… By the time the UFC took off in 2005, they were in the hole $40 million.”