UFC star "super annoyed" with Daniel Cormier, Joe Rogan comments on Elon Musk, Arman Tsarukyan details last-minute pullout: MMA News Roundup

A veteran UFC fighter was "super annoyed" with Daniel Cormier for leaking information about him on the internet. Elsewhere, Joe Rogan gushed over Elon Musk once again.

Here are your top combat sports updates for today.

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Robert Whittaker "super annoyed" with Daniel Cormier

Following Robert Whittake's submission loss to Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 308, Daniel Cormier leaked the photo of the former's dislodged teeth on social media. The injury was caused by the face crank that 'Borz' used to beat Whittaker.

'The Reaper' later explained that he had broken his jaw when he was 19 years old and had a metal plate put in. He hadn't broken his mandible against Chimaev but the front teeth on his lower jaw got pushed back from their position. However, Whittaker did not appreciate Cormier sharing the picture of his injury online.

During a recent appearance on Ariel Helwani's show, the former UFC middleweight champion said:

"I was super annoyed. It’s such a scummy thing to do. It’s like, the doctor took a photo of my mouth and said he was going to go show Dana [White]. So, that he knows what’s up. I thought, ‘Cool, do that'. DC took a photo off the other guy’s phone to post all over socials. Is that not scummy?"

Whittaker continued that he did not care too much but the close-up snap made the injury look more severe than it was.

"It looked worse than it did... I was getting condolence messages. People thought I was dead. I would have liked to control the reaction better, but it is what it is.''

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Joe Rogan comments on Elon Musk's "cultural weirdness"

During a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience (#2260) featuring Lex Fridman as the guest, the UFC commentator heaped praise on Elon Musk:

"Elon [Musk] is such a unique character. You can't put him in the same category as an Einstein, because he's a cultural weirdness. Who's this guy making memes, cracking jokes, dunking on people, and telling people to go f**k themselves? Buys Twitter, tuns a bunch of different companies simultaneously while playing video games constantly. That doesn't fit in anywhere else... He's one of the most unique human beings in all of history."

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO reacted to Rogan's take on X with a single laughing emoji.

This comes after both of them attended Donald Trump's inauguration as the 47th president of the United States of America, where Musk sparked controversy by doing the alleged Nazi salute during his speech.

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Arman Tsarukyan explains pulling out of UFC 311

Arman Tsarukyan opened up on what exactly transpired the night before he decided to pull out of the title fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 311. He shared on the JAXXON Podcast that he started having back pain the night before the UFC 311 press conference and it only kept getting worse by the hour:

"Wednesday I had a nice training session... And after, when I went to sleep, I started feeling my lower back and couldn't sleep all night and then I woke up. I slept 30 minutes for the whole night.

He went to sleep with six pounds left to lose the night before the UFC 311 weigh-ins, but the pain was excruciating enough for him to pull the plug:

"After the press conference, It was okay I started cutting weight. During the weight cut, my lower back started [to pain] when I was doing the bike [workout]... I went to sleep six pounds over and wanted to do it in the morning, but could’t sleep all night as well, and my back was hurting. Like I couldn’t even move in on the bed. So I was just lying down. So at 5 AM I just said I cannot cut weight because I cannot move."