Ronda Rousey
Dana White appeared to exchange words with Joe Rogan after an interview, but the UFC president said that he isn't angry at the announcer. Reuters

UFC President Dana White was not pleased with a question that commentator Joe Rogan asked Ronda Rousey on Saturday.

Rousey successfully defended her UFC women’s bantamweight title against Alexis Davis at UFC 175, defeating her challenger by TKO after just 16 seconds. After the fight, Rogan, who serves as UFC’s color commentator, went to the ring to interview Rousey about the fight and her future plans.

During the interview, Rogan told the live audience that the production truck had urged him to ask Rousey if she would be willing to headline UFC 176, the organization’s next major pay-per-view event. The previous headliner, Jose Aldo, was recently sidelined for the Aug. 2 event due to injury.

Rousey, who was just seconds removed from her fight, declined to give a definitive answer to the question. “If they say it’s cool with them, it’s cool with me,” she said, via MMAJunkie.com. “I’ll do it.”

Shortly after the interview, White rushed into the ring and appeared to apologize to Rousey for the impromptu line of questioning. Rogan, who stood nearby, placed a hand on White’s shoulder, and the pair appeared to exchange a few heated words about the situation.

However, at a post-event press conference, White explained that he wasn’t angry with Rogan. “I wasn’t upset with Joe Rogan. I was upset with the truck telling him to tell Ronda that she’s going to fight again,” White told the media. “That wasn’t true. That was some s--- that somebody made up back there.

“It was the biggest idiotic move in the history of our production team. I told them right up there that’s not true. I don’t know where that came from. Nobody told anybody to say that.”

UFC competitors, especially top fighters, rarely compete on back-to-back pay-per-view events; each fight requires several months of training and, typically, plenty of post-fight recovery time. This is especially true for Rousey, who suffered a severe cut to her right hand that required several stitches.

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