There have been increasing signs over the past few weeks that veteran UFC play-by-play commentator Mike Goldberg’s days in the UFC may be numbered.
It all started with rumors that the UFC’s new owners WME-IMG were considering thier options, with a report from The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer stating that the UFC wanted to bring an end to the “hype master” style of announcing favored by Goldberg and color commentator Joe Rogan.
Since then White has confirmed in an interview with Sportsnet’s Tim & Sid that he is in the process of putting together a new commentary team.
“This has been my dream to assemble this dream team of commentating and I’ve wanted this guy for years and I’m working on it and it’s going to happen,” White confirmed.
However, White appeared to rule out the possibility that Rogan would be getting cast aside.
“Joe Rogan, in my opinion, is the greatest to ever do it,” White stated. “The greatest ever to call fights. HBO is very cocky and arrogant in their [boxing] production, but they deserve to be; they do it well and everything else. But Joe Rogan is the greatest to ever call fights in a combat sport.”
The fact that White made no mention of Goldberg suggests that it’s he who the UFC are looking to replace, and adding fuel to the fire was a slip-up from Rogan’s Rogan’s long-time friend Eddie Bravo during a ‘Fight Companion’ podcast a week ago in which he blurted out, “who’s taking Mike Goldberg’s spot?” resulting in an uncomfortably long silence until Brendan Schaub and Rogan changed the subject.
Despite increased speculation, White is currently staying tight-lipped on exactly who he is targeting, but by the sounds of things we may well find out at some stage in 2017, which coincidentally will mark Mike Goldberg’s 20th year commentating for the UFC.
