Earlier this week, David Portnoy discussed his recent online beef with UFC lightweight Justin Gaethje on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.
Since signing the well-liked fan favorites Paddy Pimblett (20-3 MMA) and Molly McCann (13-5 MMA) to be exclusive content creators, the Barstool founder has been making the rounds in the mixed martial arts scene.
Portnoy has been a devoted supporter of them both and has been seen watching both of their most recent bouts from cage side.
Portnoy and Rogan butted heads over the fact that Rogan disagreed with awarding Pimblett the decision win over Jared Gordon. On the same card, Ankalaev and Blachowicz competed to a draw leaving the light heavyweight belt vacant. But this had a larger interplay.
During the podcast appearance, David Portnoy explained the circumstances behind his Twitter spat with Gaethje.
People are telling me @Justin_Gaethje was recently seen hanging out with a warlord accused of brutal crimes against humanity so its hypocritical for him to say we look bad for supporting Paddy when he supports a warlord. I’m gonna take high road + not mention it. #daveyhighroad https://t.co/TiuBhAnnrp
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 11, 2022
Portnoy said: “[Gaethje] threatened to beat me up. That’s not saying much. Your producer could beat me up. That’s not much of a threat. I’ve never been in a physical altercation in my life.”
“After the fight, Paddy is saying, ‘fight off the night!’ The third round, they didn’t throw a punch. It wasn’t fight of the night, but he was talking fight of the night. Paddy’s our guy. So, we’re saying, ‘Fight of the night, fight of the night!’
“He [Gaethje] got mad at us. He’s like, ‘You’re trying to steal money from the actual fighters who won fight of the night.’ We’re like no we didn’t … People littered the comments that he was out with a third-world dictator [Ramzan Kadyrov]. So, I hit him back with that. We just said Paddy was fight of the night, you were out with the dictator, one of the worst guys on the planet.”
Gaethje was photographed in Chechnya in November with Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo. According to reports, the trio travelled there at Ramazan Kadyrov’s request to attend Ali Kadyrov’s birthday party.
Justin Gaethje denied seeing Kadyrov, saying instead that he had accepted an invitation to the warlord’s son’s birthday party.
In a comedic reply, Joe Rogan advised David Portnoy to avoid provoking the most aggressive guy in MMA.
What seemed to evade the both of them is that the conflict originated in the Blachowicz, Ankalaev main event. Both Gaethje and Ankalaev share a manager and as such the comments addressing shoddy judging at UFC 282 were likely a result of resentment over their team member’s loss.