Joe Rogan out of UFC 271 commentary team
Joe Rogan is no longer on the punditry team for UFC 271 on Saturday amid a scandal surrounding his use of the n-word on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
The UFC insisted the decision was made due to a "scheduling conflict" as part of a statement on Friday.
Rogan was booked to form part of a three-man team with Jon Anik and ex-light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, but will now be replaced by Michael Bisping in Houston.
Rogan is currently battling controversy and calls for his popular Spotify podcast to be canceled. First accused of spreading "misinformation" on Covid, a video compilation then emerged of Rogan repeatedly using the n-word across some of the widely-popular show's 1,770 episodes.
Rogan described the montage as a "political hitjob". "They’re taking all this stuff that I’ve ever said that was wrong and smushing it all together," he protested on the latest installment of the podcast uploaded on Tuesday.
"[But] it’s good ‘cause it makes me address some s**t that I really wish wasn’t out there," Rogan admitted.
As recently as Wednesday, however, Rogan was still on the UFC 271 analyst team only to be pulled at the last minute. While some continue to call for his head, though, Rogan has received backing from the main event's middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya.
At a press conference to promote his headline bout against Robert Whittaker, Adesanya butted in when president Dana White was probed on the Rogan furor.
"First off, let me take this one," the Nigerian demanded.
"Hold up. I’m black. I can take this one. Look, there’s a lot of c**ts in this game. There are a lot of snakes in this game. I’ve been in this fight game since 2008.
"Joe Rogan is one of the nicest, coolest, humble motherf**kers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Understand that," Adesanya went on.
"F**k the noise. You know what they’re trying to do. You can’t control the man. He’s got the biggest platform in the world right now. That’s my n***a, Joe Rogan. F**k the noise," Adesanya concluded with a mic drop, to raucous cheers.
On Instagram, 'The Last Stylebender' doubled down on his message when sharing a video of his remarks which has already been seen 1.6 million times. "United we stand, divided we fall," he began in the caption with love hearts.
"We are living in very strange times. When a voice speaks out against the mainstream narrative, the establishment has a systematic way of shutting said voice down.
"I’m not asking you to think like me, I encourage you to turn off your tv and think for yourself. Don’t let them pull the wool over your eyes," Adesanya insisted, while leaving a string of sheep emojis.
Providing commentary for UFC 270 where Francis Ngannou defended his heavyweight strap against Ciryl Gane in the main event, Rogan is still booked in to return to his role at UFC 272 which sees former welterweight title contender Colby Covington fight a grudge match with Jorge Masvidal.
