Dana White has given his verdict on the back-and-forth between Joe Rogan and Stephen A. Smith, and he’s backing Rogan all the way.
UFC analyst Rogan recently had a public disagreement with Smith when he took badly to comments following Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone’s emphatic loss to Conor McGregor.
‘Notorious’ destroyed Cerrone in just 40 seconds in his much-anticipated return to the Octagon, and Smith wasted no time in ripping apart his opponent.
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‘Huge Fans’
Rogan however didn’t take well to the ESPN radio host’s comments and hit back on behalf of Cowboy.
The two have since been embroiled in a war of words, going tit-for-tat in the media.
And Dana White has now had his say on the matter, and believes Rogan was right in demanding more respect for Cerrone.
Speaking to MMA Junkie, White said as a true fan it was hard to hear one of the UFC’s veteran stars being ripped apart.
“I’m a huge fight fan,” White said.
“Joe Rogan is a huge fight fan.”
“Listen, you’re tuning in and buying the pay-per-view because you love these guys and you respect these fighters, and you’re a fan of the sport.”
“The last thing you want to do is hear somebody ripping them apart.”
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‘Not in the UFC’
White went on to admit that he’ll criticise a fighters actions where it feels justified, such as when he slammed Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman for their ‘neanderthal’ behaviour.
But the fight boss says tearing into fighters the way Smith did is just not something that’s welcome in the UFC.
“I’m not into it,” he continued.
“Rogan is not into it.”
“You don’t see that in the UFC.”
“There will be times where I’m p***ed off at a guy, and I’ll voice my opinion on what he did or whatever.”
“What we don’t do is, when a fight is over and a guy loses, we don’t go in and rip them apart,”
“It’s just not our style.”
“We’re fans,”
“We don’t do it.”
(Featured image source: YouTube/ MMA Junkie, Joe Rogan Experience, ESPN)