Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) color commentator, Joe Rogan, has been calling mixed martial arts (MMA) fights longer than most of his fans have been watching combat sports, so there’s no denying the stand-up comedian knows his onions when it comes to the happenings inside the cage.
At the same time, he’s employed by UFC and is expected to put over pay-per-view (PPV) fights to the best of his ability, even during a dumpster fire like the welterweight (cough) “fight” between part-time reporter Mike Jackson and World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) import CM Punk (watch the highlights here).
The fight was trash, everyone knew it was trash, but Rogan had to try to find any positives he could, which includes his live take on Jackson’s striking. While “The Truth” allegedly has a kickboxing background, I’m not sure anyone would mistake it for being world class.
Which is why former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub was cringing during the UFC 225 event in Chicago, according to critical comments he recently made on his “Below the Belt” podcast (transcribed by BJPenn.com):
“The commentators ... Joe Rogan, one of my best friends, my brother, and even Jimmy Smith, those guys. When they would go, ‘Mike Jackson has high-level striking’ ... I think we have to be very careful, very careful not to throw around the term ‘high-level striking’. Trust me, a high-level striker would have beat CM Punk in under 30 seconds. It would not have been a competitive fight if any one of those two had some sort of high-level striking. That was the only cringe-worthy night [sic], the only thing that made me go, ‘oh god!’ We got to be careful with that because if you’re a fan and you’re watching that and you go, ‘god, that’s high-level striking?’ No, it’s not.”
I guess “high-level striking” is this generation’s “K-1 level kickboxer.”
Schaub was a regular guest on Rogan’s wildly podcast podcast and used his exposure on that platform to secure his own gigs, which includes this recent deal with Showtime. While he may have never officially retired, the chances of seeing “Big Brown” inside the Octagon anytime soon are idling on the corner of Slim & None.
As for Rogan, his current UFC contract operates on a year-to-year basis, so as soon as he gets sick of calling fights, or grows tired of getting flamed for his slap-worthy remarks, the former Fear Factor host will be be riding into the sunset.
For much more ion UFC 225 click here.
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