Joe Rogan Says He Won’t Be Commentating UFC 249

If UFC 249 happens on April 18 in a location to be announced, Joe Rogan will not be commentating it as he usually does for pay-per-views.

Rogan has been a staple on pay-per-views on North American soil, yet he says the plan may only be to have one commentator which will not be him.

“The UFC is talking about putting on a fight on April 18th,” Rogan said on the JRE Experience (via MMAFighting). “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 an open arena – I guess someone’s gonna commentate it [but] it’s not gonna be me – and they’re gonna be duking it out in an empty place. And they’re gonna try to do that on the 18th.”

Although many think the card won’t happen, UFC president, Dana White is certain it will. For Rogan, he says if it happens it could very well be in any place as they won’t need an arena to host it given there will be no fans.

“They did it for the last card in Brazil because it was ordered by the government,” Rogan said about holding a locked-down event. “The government ordered all large gatherings to break up when they started seeing the corona rising in Brazil so they had to do the Brazil card indoors, no people, weird. But they’re gonna plan Khabib and Tony this way. They’re gonna plan it, so it doesn’t even have to be a big place. They could do it in, like, a film studio. Legitimately, they could set this up in a film studio somewhere.

“We did it when we did Fight for the Troops. Whenever we did it, they just would use an airplane hangar. The troops would be there. The whole audience would be the troops and their uniforms and they would set up this Octagon in an airplane hangar. It was pretty powerful. Different. Real different. Different kind of show,” he continued. “But they could do that. They could do that in a studio or just a large warehouse. The UFC could do it. Set up some lights, have some crazy high-speed hookup to the internet, let’s party. Next thing you know, it’s getting uploaded and we’re watching it from here.”

Tony Ferguson Khabib Nurmagomedov
Image Credit: Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images

Joe Rogan says the UFC has what it takes to hold the event but wonders if the promotion will test everyone for COVID-19.

“They could definitely [hold the event]. The UFC has the capability of doing that. The thing is, how are they going to make sure nobody has it?” Rogan asked. “You’re going to have to test everybody. And if someone has it, do you let them fight? What if they have it and they’re like Idris Elba and they have no symptoms but they’ve got the corona? What if Khabib has the corona? Or what if Tony has the corona, does Khabib even fight him?”

In the end, Rogan cements the fact that this fight is truly cursed which is why Dana White is trying so hard to make it happen given both are finally healthy.

“This fight is so cursed!” Rogan concluded. “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.”

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