Megan Turner
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UFC commentator Joe Rogan missed UFC 271, but UFC president Dana White said after the fights that Rogan’s absence was of his own accord.
At the post-fight press conference, White told reporters that the reports of Rogan having a scheduling conflict were untrue and that Rogan could’ve worked the event if he wanted to, MMA Junkie reports.
“There was no conflict of schedule,” White told MMA Junkie. “Joe Rogan didn’t work tonight. Joe Rogan could’ve worked tonight. … Yeah, Joe Rogan, I don’t know what Joe Rogan had to do. You guys will have to ask Joe Rogan, but there was no ‘Joe couldn’t work,’ or anything like that. I know that came out. That’s total bullsh*t.”
Chants of “Free Joe Rogan” filled the Toyota Center throughout the event. In his place, commentators Jon Anik, Michael Bisping, and Daniel Cormier called the action.
MMA Junkie reports that Rogan typically only calls domestic pay-per-view events for the promotion, so the next UFC pay-per-view event in the U.S. takes place on March 5 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“Whenever he’s going to work again, he’ll be working, yeah,” White said, speaking on Rogan’s future.
Rogan’s faced some heat in recent weeks relating to the podcast side of his career, starting when musical artists Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from Spotify in protest of past conversations Rogan had with guests on his podcast about COVID-19 topics.
The streaming service added content advisories, but a short time later R&B artist India Arie took to Instagram to say Rogan made offensive comments about race on a recent episode that was “problematic.” Days later, a resurfaced montage video of Rogan’s past use of the “N-word,” and he issued an apology earlier this month. He apologized and said he will not use the word moving forward.
Yup Dana said this last night after the fights. Rogan pulled out. It wasn’t espn, or Disney or anyone else tellingly the UFC that Rogan couldn’t work, he made the decision on his own unless you believe Dana White is lying which I don’t. Rogan has definitely made a few suspect decisions of late and I’m not sure what his rationale was for this one. The only thing I can see is that he didn’t want to be a distraction so he figured he’d lay low and let things blow over and be at the next fight. Personally I think he should have called the fight because not going created even more noise but he’s a big boy and can make his own decisions. I just think he made the wrong one.