Joe Rogan has welcomed more than 1,000 different people on his podcast over the past 15 years, but one person recently admitted that he's "not going to have me on" the show.
Earlier this month, popular MMA journalist Ariel Helwani was asked why he had never been on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Speaking on The Ariel Helwani show, he explained: "Throughout our entire time knowing each other he (Rogan) has always been kind and complimentary but given his relationship with Dana, he's not going to have me on. And I get that, I don't need to be on.
Advert
"I routinely say that what he has built is so impressive and admirable, it's the biggest podcast in the world."
Helwani went on to address the one "issue" that he has with Rogan, which stems from an incident in 2016, when he and his team had their credentials revoked for correctly breaking the news on Brock Lesnar’s comeback at UFC 200.
In fact, Helwani was kicked out of UFC 199 and was later told he was banned from all future UFC events.
Advert
Rogan would later claim that Helwani was told by the UFC that only a handful of people were aware of the confidential information, and by breaking the news, people would be fired to eliminate any more leaks.
Speaking about the incident on his show, Helwani said: "The one issue I have with him, which we've talked about a thousand times, is that I did not appreciate the Monday after UFC 199 when he told a version of the story that was 1000% fabricated and that was potentially damaging to my reputation."
He added: "He said a bunch of stuff happened that never happened, it was just their version of the story that they wanted out there to make it seem that I did something wrong and that was very hurtful."
The UFC would later reverse its ban on Helwani, who later said that UFC president Dana White told him to leave the event because he was being "too negative."
Advert
Several years later, Rogan suggested that Helwani lured comments from Sean Brady following his defeat to Belal Muhammad at UFC 280, when he said that the journalist "likes to get people to say things".
This comment didn't go down well with the Canadian journalist.
"It’s especially rich coming from the guy who was pushing false narratives, and false information, and fake information, and all kinds of nonsense over the past two years to the point where people were demanding that he get dropped from Spotify, which I never agreed with," he said on The MMA Hour.
Advert
"But I mean, that’s rich. Of course, we know what the history is with Joe. He’s Dana’s boy, he’s always going to have his back.”
He continued: “At least I ask people questions about topics that I’m somewhat well versed in, as opposed to you know, someone who sits in front of his guests and pretends to know more about a topic when they’re talking to an expert and pretends to be interested about the topic.
"Now I’m going on and on about something that I don’t really want to go on and on about but that is a weird comment. That is a really weird comment. ‘Ariel Helwani likes to get people to say things,’ I mean, yes, I do. I like when people say things to me, that would be an answer to a question. But other than that, I’m not really sure what he’s referring to.”
Advert
Helwani added: "As I’ve detailed before, at my lowest, he [Joe Rogan] spread lies about me. It’s a bullsh*t comment from someone who’s an interviewer… and joking or not, it’s stupid."
Topics: Joe Rogan, UFC, Brock Lesnar
Jack Kenmare