Dana White announces Joe Rogan will comment at UFC 249, despite withdrawal statement
Veteran UFC commentator Joe Rogan has claimed he won't be a part of next weekend's pay-per-view card.
UFC president Dana White has dismissed suggestions that Joe Rogan won't be commentating at UFC 249. Late last month, the veteran commentator claimed he wouldn't have any part of the promotion's fourth pay-per-view event, which will take place at an unknown private island on Saturday week.
Rogan seemingly withdrew from the card during a recent episode of his long-running podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, in which he voiced his concerns over the coronavirus.
The Bostonian said: “The UFC is talking about putting on a fight on April 18th. I don’t know how they’re gonna do that.
"I don’t know if they’re gonna be able to do that in the United States.
"They’re talking about doing it in a place with less than 10 people, just an open arena.
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Rogan will be there
"I guess someone’s gonna commentate it [but] it’s not gonna be me - and they’re gonna be duking it out in an empty place.
"And they’re gonna try to do that on the 18th.”
But just over a week after Rogan's apparent withdrawal from his commentary duties, White has insisted he will be calling next weekend's fights.
“He did not say that," a defiant White told TMZ early on Tuesday morning. “Again, you can not listen to anything the media says.
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"Nobody talked to him, they heard him talking on a podcast.
"So they start writing stories off a podcast that are full of s**t. Rogan will be there.”
UFC 249 was due to be headlined by the long-awaited lightweight title fight between champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, which has been over five years in the making.
Fan favourite Justin Gaethje, however, has been brought in to replace Nurmagomedov, who is currently stuck in Russia due to coronavirus travel restrictions.
And according to White, the winner of the interim lightweight title fight will face Nurmagomedov in a unification bout later this year.
“You get Gaethje versus Tony," White told ESPN. “It’s the fight that makes sense.
"It’s two of the top guys in the world. Khabib is out, so the winner will face Khabib next.”
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