Joe Rogan won’t commentate UFC 249 – “It’s not gonna be me”
Joe Rogan, a longtime commentator for UFC pay-per-view events, says that he will not work the highly anticipated UFC 249 event scheduled for April 18.
“I guess someone’s going to commentate it – it’s not gonna be me,” Rogan said on a recent episode of the “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “UFC is talking about putting on a fight on April 18. I don’t know how they’re gonna do that. I don’t know if they’re gonna be able to do that in the United States. They’re talking about doing it in a place with less than 10 people, just in an open arena.”
The card is to be headlined by a lightweight title bout between champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former interim champion Tony Ferguson. A location for the event is not set in stone after the coronavirus pandemic forced the card originally scheduled for the Barclays Center in New York to be shut down.
Despite travel bans and restrictions taking place around the globe, UFC President Dana White insists that the card will go forward. The promotion held a fight card in Brazil earlier this month without fans in attendance to help stop the spread of the disease. They had hoped to produce their card in London, England the following week but event, and their new two scheduled cards, were canceled just days prior.
Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson has already been canceled four times for a variety of reasons, leaving Rogan thinking that White wants to make sure the contest happens this time around even if fans are not in attendance.
“This fight is so cursed,” Rogan said. “This is how Dana feels. This is why Dana’s trying so hard to make it happen, even if there’s only 10 people in the room.”
