News

#Joe Rogan won’t be on call for MMA broadcast

“#Joe Rogan won’t be on call for MMA broadcast”

Joe Rogan is no longer on the call for UFC 271 as controversy swirls around the popular podcaster and MMA color commentator.

A UFC official confirmed to The Post that Rogan will not be on for Saturday’s event, citing a scheduling conflict. He remains scheduled to be on color commentary for UFC 272 in March.

Michael Bisping is replacing Rogan on Saturday’s telecast, alongside Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier.

MMA Fighting reported, as of Wednesday, Rogan had been scheduled to be on the UFC 271 broadcast.

Rogan has been persistently in the news, recently, due to his Spotify-exclusive podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and other musicians pulled their music catalogues off the streaming service over alleged misinformation disseminated on Rogan’s podcast.

One of Rogan’s recent guests, Dr. Robert Malone, is a virologist banned from Twitter and YouTube. Dr. Malone believes side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine are being withheld by the government and the media — and probably at the behest of Big Pharma.

Rogan, somewhat surprisingly, retreated a little bit.

Joe Rogan will not be on the call for UFC 271 as controversy swirls.

“If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” he said in a 10-minute apology video posted to his Instagram account. “I’m not trying to promote misinformation. I’m not trying to be controversial,” he insisted, saying his podcast feels like “some out-of-control juggernaut that I barely have control of.”

“I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations,” he said.

Joe Rogan at UFC 268 with Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier

He agreed with Spotify’s decision to place disclaimers ahead of controversial episodes, and said he would make an effort to have more people on the other side of debates as guests on his podcast.

But that did not quell the controversies.

Earlier this month, a clip surfaced on social media of Rogan using the n-word a number of times. Rogan called the clip “the most regretful and shameful thing I’ve ever had to talk about publicly.”

“It looks f–king horrible,” he said. “Even to me. … I know that to most people, there is no context where a white person is ever allowed to say that word, never mind publicly on a podcast, and I agree with that now. I haven’t said it in years.”

Rogan, however, said that the clip took his usage of the word out of context, and that he was repeating bits from black comedians such as Richard Pryor or Redd Foxx.

Rogan has called attempts to cancel him a “political hit job”.

UFC middleweight champ Israel Adesanya, who is fighting in UFC 271 on Saturday, defended Rogan at the pre-fight press conference on Thursday.

“First off, let me take this one, hold up I’m Black, I can take this one,” Adesanya said, when UFC boss Dana White was asked about Rogan. “There’s a lot of c–ts in this game, there’s a lot of snakes in this game. I’ve been in this fight game since 2008 and Joe Rogan is one of the nicest, coolest, humble motherf–kers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Understand that. F–k the noise.”

Adesanya said political forces are trying to control Rogan.

“You know what they’re trying to do,” said the UFC middleweight champ, who on Saturday defends his title in a rematch against Robert Whittaker. “You can’t control the man, and he’s got the biggest platform in the world right now. That’s my n—- Joe Rogan.”

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on Google News too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.