Fans Condemn Joe Rogan’s Criticism of Leon Edwards Despite Dominating Colby Covington at UFC 296
Leon Edwards delivered a dominant performance against Colby Covington at UFC 296.
‘Rocky’ scored a decisive decision over the outspoken welterweight contender at the promotion’s final pay-per-view event of the year, solidifying his status as the top dog at 170 and earning some well-deserved revenge after a series of vile comments Covington made in the days leading up to their clash in Sin City.
However, that didn’t stop Joe Rogan from throwing some shade at Edwards’ nearly perfect execution.
“What was interesting is that he made choices tonight that were not the best choices to win the fight, but almost like to prove a point,” Rogan said during the broadcast. “Like, he chose to engage Colby in grappling in moments where he did not have to, where he could have defended and got back up to his feet. I think that would be a better path to victory, where he could have completely dominated the fight, absolutely dominated it” (h/t MMA Mania).
Edwards ran away with the victory, earning a 49-46 scorecard from all three judges, but all Rogan seemed interested in talking about was the brief portion of the bout where Covington gained top control after ‘Rocky’ chose to grapple with the All-American in the final half of the fifth round.
“(Edwards) found himself on the bottom at the end of the fight getting punched by Colby, which really didn’t have to happen,” Rogan continued. “That’s not the way you wanna see a guy who’s as good as Leon Edwards fight. You don’t want to seem him make ego-based decisions when you don’t have to, especially when he’s so superior standing up.”
Fight fans were quick to lambaste Rogan’s comments on YouTube, suggesting that his disrespect toward Edwards’ performance and his lack of focus on anything, but the final minutes of the fight were due to his blatant bias toward Covington.
“Joe was sooo negative because his co-Trumper didn’t win! He only mentioned the last 30 seconds of round 5 rather than the other 24.30 minutes.”
“Rogan’s criticism is kinda weird and he was a wet blanket commentating that fifth round. Leon dominated the match from start to finish and it’s weird to try so hard to find something to criticize.”
“Imagine the only faults you have for a fighter is that he switched and fought fire with fire.”
“Leon does it and “it’s not a good decision.” (Charles) Oliveira did it in each and every one of his defenses and was praised for bringing the fight always as if he was the underdog.”
“Joe def wanted to see Colby win. Hated on Leon as if he lost when he dominated the fight lol he was visually pissed.”
“Joe is being rather critical. Leon dominated in every way. Tried to finish him in the fifth which is what joe and “DC” were telling him to do and he ends up on the bottom. They weren’t this critical towards similar fights like Vettori vs. Izzy or Santos vs. Jones. It just shows how Leon is still disrespected in America media due to him not being a big personality.”
MMA Fans Left Dumbfounded by Rogan’s ‘Hilarious’ Commentary of Edwards vs. Covington
Fight fans on X (formerly Twitter) were also unforgiving of Rogan’s ridiculous commentary during and immediately following the fight.
In all likelihood, Leon Edwards’ next welterweight title defense will be against Belal Muhammad, but many fans are already calling for Shavkat Rakhmonov to get the nod following his impressive win over Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at UFC 296.
