MMA fans were heard chanting 'Free Joe Rogan' at UFC 271 in Houston on Saturday, showing their support for the under-fire commentator and podcaster.
Rogan is battling controversy over accusations of Covid misinformation spread on his hugely popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, and past use of the n-word highlighted by a montage video recently shared online.
On the eve of the UFC card headlined by a middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker, Rogan's name disappeared from the punditry team and was replaced by Michael Bisping, in a change which some had reported was due to a "scheduling conflict".
On Saturday during the show at the Toyota Center, some of those in attendance took part in loud 'Free Joe Rogan' chants to show their support for the 54-year-old.
In his press conference after the event, president Dana White insisted there had been "no conflict of schedule" for Rogan.
"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," White said, according to MMA Junkie.
"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 bulls**t.
"Whenever he’s going to work again, he’ll be working, yeah," White confirmed.
Rogan is reportedly still booked for punditry duties next month at UFC 272, where two-time welterweight title challengers Colby Covington and Jorge Masvidal face one another in a grudge match.
Leading up to the Adesanya's unanimous decision win over Whittaker, the Nigerian-born star also backed Rogan with a passionate speech.
"First off, let me take this one," the Nigerian demanded when a reporter tried to fire a question at White on the Rogan scandal.
"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 stated.
"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," he concluded, to hearty cheers.
While Rogan dubbed the n-word montage a "political hitjob" as "they’re taking all this stuff that I’ve ever said that was wrong and smushing it all together," he admitted that its surfacing was "good" because "it makes me address some s**t that I really wish wasn’t out there."
Also wading into the row was White's regular heel Paul, who claimed that the broadcaster and its owner were behind Rogan's omission on Saturday.
"So ESPN and Disney pull Rogan from the UFC broadcast but stand behind Dana White who calls reporters dou*** bags, says a female fighter looks like a male fighter in dress and heels, and claims brain damage is part of the gig?" asked the Youtuber-turned-boxer, who has regularly challenged White over poor fighter pay.
"You pulled the wrong guy, Mr. Chapek," Paul added, in a direct address at Walt Disney Company chief executive Bob Chapek.
In the comments section, former UFC women's featherweight champion Cris Cyborg – who now holds the Bellator equivalent of the title and appeared in Paul's recent rap diss video that targeted White – shared a clip containing snippets of Rogan and White making derogatory remarks about her.
Suggesting Cyborg looked like a transsexual, White says the Brazilian once attended the MMA Awards looking like UFC icon Wanderlei Silva "in a dress and heels".
Later, in an excerpt taken from episode 723 of The Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan jokes that Cyborg has male genitalia.