Joe Rogan calls UFC White House the best night of fights ever

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WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 14: Joe Rogan and UFC President and CEO Dana White pose for a photo in the Octagon following the UFC lightweight championship fight during the UFC Freedom 250 event on the South Lawn at the White House on June 14, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC) Joe Rogan has been front and center for some of the biggest events in MMA history and he believes UFC White House tops them all. The longtime UFC commentator’s opinion shouldn’t be surprising as he was once again octagon-side for what UFC CEO Dana White has repeatedly called the promotion’s most expensive and grandiose show ever by a wide margin. In the end, Rogan, White, President Donald Trump, and a number of officials and VIPs were treated to a finish-filled UFC White House card capped off by Justin Gaethje’s unbelievable upset of Ilia Topuria to unify their lightweight championships. In the end, Rogan is comfortable calling the event the best he’s ever seen. “I’m a hyperbolic individual and I’m always like, ‘This is the greatest, this is awesome,’” Rogan said on his podcast. “That was the wildest experience that I’ve ever had in my 20-whatever years of calling combat sports. There’s nothing even close. Nothing even close. “It was the greatest night of fights of all time and it was the only night in the history of the sport where every single fight ended by knockout. Every single one, seven fights. Every one of them ended by knockout, which never happens. Unprecedented. It was like the perfect experience for anybody that had never watched the UFC before, to see it that way at the White House like that, it was nuts.” Sunday’s show also saw Ciryl Gane dominate Alex Pereira to win an interim UFC heavyweight title and foil the Brazilian star’s attempts to become the promotion’s first-ever three-division champion, and Sean O’Malley, Josh Hokit, Mauricio Ruffy, Bo Nickal, and Diego Lopes all score knockout victories. Beyond the in-cage action, Rogan emphasized how the scope of the event is what truly made it stand out. “I know people saw it on television and it looked insane, but the magnitude of the event being there live—So there’s the event that’s taking place on the lawn of the White House and that has 4,000-plus people, the actual UFC,” Rogan said. “So there’s a bunch of military guys that are standing up in the back, there’s like a thousand of those, and there’s 3,000-plus that are seated, all these people are seated. But then behind that, not that far, like 100 yards, 200 yards, whatever it is—I guess it’s more than that, maybe 300 yards-there’s the ellipse. “The ellipse has 85,000 people who got in for free. … So this area, they have a giant screen set up and they have huge speakers and sound and so 85,000 fans are watching the fights live on the screens and they can see the lights of the f*cking claw dome in the distance and they can see the White House in the distance where the fights are taking place, but they’re watching it on massive screens with commentary. You could hear them roar. So you’d hear the crowd from here and then you’d hear 85,000 people just f*cking ‘raaaaaah!’ You could hear it in the distance. It was insane.” One more aspect of UFC White House that blew Rogan’s mind is the weird and winding journey the UFC has taken from outlaw attraction to mainstream juggernaut. While parts of the UFC story have certainly been twisted and embellished over the years, there’s no arguing that the business was in dire straits in the late 1990s and early 2000s, to the point that it was closer to being a non-entity than a form of entertainment befitting the president of the United States. White and his close friends Frank and Lorenzo played their part in turning the UFC around to the point that it’s now the head of a billion-dollar industry and can lay claim to have held an event on the South Lawn, an inconceivable outcome when Rogan joined the promotion in 1997. “They started getting pay-per-view buys, it started growing and gathering steam, but even back then it was like you were doing porn or something or snuff films,” Rogan said. “You were doing something that was damaging for your career and people would look at you, like, ‘You’re working for a cagefighting organization? Why would you do that?’ “Cut to 25 years later. It’s on the lawn of the White House and it is one of the most-watched sporting events in the history of the world.” TOP STORIES P4P. Ilia Topuria and Alex Pereira join the list of Pound-for-Pound greats to suffer a loss and even we don’t know what we’re doing anymore. Controversy. Daniel Cormier responds to hacked Twitter account controversy: ‘I would never do something like that.’ Rules. Herb Dean defends his UFC White House officiating after being called out by Alex Pereira. Big. Pereira insists he’s staying at heavyweight. Statement. The UFC issues an official response to the revelation that Conor McGregor used banned substances during his hiatus from competition. Booked. Islam Makhachev defends his welterweight title against Ian Machado Garry in the UFC 330 main event. Hokit. Israel Adesanya in disbelief at Josh Hokit’s UFC White House speech: ‘He’s trying to put a red dot on his own head.’ VIDEO STEW Watch a brand new Between the Links at 12 p.m. ET / 9 a.m. PT. Absolutely sick. Becoming a Fighter with Kayla Harrison. UFC White House reactions. SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE The definitive fight week schedule. Live Combat Sport Schedule: 6/17 – 6/21 Complete schedule w/ fight cards, PPV & free live streams HERE: ▶️https://t.co/Tkt5iw0xVV#UFCVegas119 #CollazoCanoy #OKTAGON90 #CW207 #KSW119 #LFA235 #BKFCNashville #ACA204 #CFFC155 #GarnerMagnesi #KNOCKOUT65 #ShootBoxing #FNC32 #CW206 pic.twitter.com/SVuwk4AO21 — caposa (@Grabaka_Hitman) June 17, 2026 Compare and contrast. You know Alex Pereira is super popular because people are up in arms over Ciryl Gane fouling him (in a fight he was losing) when 8 months ago the conversation was about how Tom Aspinall was a quitter for getting stabbed in the eyes. — Jed Meshew II (@JedKMeshew) June 17, 2026 Question. What happens when you do work for someone and they don’t want to pay ? #iseeyousoonboi 乾杯 — Peoples Champ (@YoelRomeroMMA) June 17, 2026 Tweak? Good on Herb to explain. Now we can talk about furthering the sport. IMO it’s a ridiculous strike area and should be completely illegal anywhere behind the head given the fatal things that have occurred in boxing with these type of shots. One inch rule = dumb Too Hard on refs https://t.co/sehHm6KlUT — Charles "InnerG" Johnson (@innerGmma_ufc) June 17, 2026 Oh? View this post on Instagram Who asked for this? I’m working on a Boxing fight for @HenryCejudo stay tuned — Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) June 17, 2026 Dan Hooker? View this post on Instagram The UFC made it. A cartoon by Niall Maher. pic.twitter.com/HShHTocfbo — The New Yorker (@NewYorker) June 17, 2026 News. View this post on Instagram Football. Hydration break 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 pic.twitter.com/pDEtTUYOS7 — Arnold billy allen (@Arnoldbfa) June 17, 2026 FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS Bryan Battle (12-3, 1 NC) vs. Dalton Rosta (11-3); PFL Charlotte, Aug. 7 Josh Silveira (15-5) vs. Aaron Jeffrey (16-6); PFL Charlotte, Aug. 7 Josh Fremd (12-6) vs. Jhony Gregory (10-5); PFL Charlotte, Aug. 7 Islam Makhachev (28-1) vs. Ian Machado Garry (17-1); UFC 330, Aug. 15 Mackenzie Dern (16-5) vs. Gillian Robertson (17-8); UFC 330, Aug. 15 Erin Blanchfield (14-2) vs. Jasmine Jasudavicius (15-4); UFC 330, Aug. 15 FEED ME MORE What is this “deserves” you speak of? FINAL THOUGHTS Regarding Rogan’s comment about how working in MMA used to have the same stigma as working in the adult film industry, I remember Jed and I once had this exchange on Twitter: I intentionally avoid talking about what I do for a living on first dates if at all possible if that gives you any idea on which one I’m choosing — Jed Meshew II (@JedKMeshew) March 21, 2022 EXIT POLL If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKLee of @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and like us on Facebook.

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Joe Rogan has never seen anything like UFC White House