Joe Rogan empathized with Sage Steele’s recent podcast mistake where she confused her guest, UFC CEO Dana White, for Rogan, stating that he too has been mistaken for other bald UFC employees.
Joe Rogan had a good chuckle recently. It was over Sage Steele’s podcast slip-up with UFC CEO Dana White.
Why’s Rogan, a podcasting superstar, feeling for Steele, a podcast newbie? He’s been in her shoes. He’s goofed up and been mistaken for bald UFC folks.
“People call me Dana,” Rogan shared on his JRE MMA podcast. His co-hosts, Din Thomas and Matt Serra, both regular UFC contributors, were there. “I’ve been called Dana before. Some guy yells, ‘Yo, Dana!’ I’m like, ‘No, I’m the other guy. I’m Joe.’
It’s a common mix-up. Rogan thinks Steele just had a brain fart. “When you’re doing a podcast and you’re interviewing someone, especially if you’re new to it, and it’s a high-profile guest like Dana White, you’re always thinking of what to say. Even the question, ‘What’s your dream?’ That’s a wild question. It’s like, I don’t know what to ask you, so I’m going to just ask, ‘What’s your dream?’
“She was probably struggling a bit there and didn’t know what to say. It’s freaking weird having a conversation with someone live.”
Steele was wrapping up her chat with White. She asked the UFC exec, “What’s Joe Rogan’s dream?”
White, confused, responded, “Joe Rogan’s dream?”
“Joe Rogan … Dana White,” Steele corrected herself. “What’s Dana White’s dream?”
White asked, “Did you just think I was Joe Rogan?” He added, “She just called me freaking Joe Rogan! You thought I was freaking Joe Rogan! I was bald before Joe Rogan was ever bald! I just did a two-hour podcast, flew here from Vegas, and she thought she was interviewing Joe Rogan!”
White later shared the clip of the mix-up, showing he took it all in good humor. Rogan admired that Steele, a former ESPN anchor, didn’t try to hide her mistake in post-production.
“She handled it the right way, too,” he said. “She kept it in there. She didn’t edit it out. It’s funny. It’s just a flub. I’ve done it all the time. It happens. People mess up.”
Serra, a former UFC welterweight champion and fellow bald guy, could also relate to the confusion.
“At UFC events, or the weeks of events, when I’m doing a ‘Looking for a Fight,’ you’ve been there – [Someone will say], ‘Hey! Can I have a picture?’” Serra told Thomas. “I’m like, ‘Ah well, alright.’ And then [they’ll say], ‘Thanks a lot, Mr. White,’ or, ‘thanks a lot, Joe Rogan.’”
“They always think he’s either Joe or Dana,” Thomas said, grinning.