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By Billie Schwab Dunn
Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter
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Former ESPN host Sage Steele has explained why she confused UFC President Dana White with podcaster Joe Rogan not once but twice during an interview.
Steele sat down with White for the March 27 episode of her "Sage Steele Podcast," in which she accidentally mixed up White for Rogan, a UFC commentator in his own right.
At the start of the interview, Steele requested that White "join" her in wearing a matching pair of socks she wears during all of her interviews. When White obliged, Steele replied, "Thank you, Joe." While the two didn't address it at the time, White noticed the second time she made the mistake later on in the sit-down—and he repeatedly called her out on it.
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During an appearance on the late-night talk show Gutfeld! on Tuesday, Steele explained why she mixed up the two men's names.
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Newsweek has emailed Steele, White and Rogan for comment on Wednesday.
Steele said that the mistake happened because, on the day of the interview, White had mentioned Rogan's name. She said that sometimes, she simply gets people's names mixed up.
She said: "Because they work together with UFC and because when the show began at the beginning, Dana came in drinking a drink and I said, 'What is that?' He's like, 'It's Joe Rogan's drink.' Like, that happened an hour and 20 minutes into my podcast.
"They do look alike and oh, by the way, I have three kids—I've had three kids—the youngest is almost 18. I call them different names—I'm like 'Quinn'—like, you screw it up. Was the timing good? No."
As the audience laughed, Steele said: "However, however, and I was—and he did, he flew in from Vegas literally just to do my show and flew back. However yes, thank you, I could have edited it out and I kept it in because I'm an idiot, why not? You've got to make fun of yourself."
Steele posted a clip of her explanation to X, formerly Twitter, where people took to the comments to agree with the podcast host.
"They DO look alike! Lol," one person said.
"I'm a bald white guy and we do all look alike, you're not wrong," wrote another.
"I have 4 sisters and always are mixing their names up when I'm talking about one of them," a third person commented.
A fourth added: "Sage is a national treasure."
Near the end of her interview with White, Steele set up a dramatic moment in front of cameras when she leaned forward and asked White: "Last question: What's Joe Rogan's dream?"
"What's Joe Rogan's dream?" White asked, repeating the question.
Steele seemed to notice her mistake and played it off by mentioning both names. "Joe Rogan... Dana White," she said.
"Did you just think I was Joe Rogan?" White asked before looking off-camera. "She just called me f****** Joe Rogan. You thought I was f****** Joe Rogan? I was bald before Joe was ever bald!"
Steele isn't the first person who has confused the two UFC bigwigs, as fans often mix the two men up, citing their baldness, similar facial features, and physique as the reasons for their confusion.
As Newsweek reported in May 2023, people on X (formerly known as Twitter) went wild when they discovered White and Rogan were two different people.
One user was "baffled I've not processed it before," joking that "bald celebrities are so confusing which ones Dana White and which ones Joe Rogan?"
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