Joe Rogan: I Can’t See Myself Working For The UFC Much Longer

The UFC of 2016 is a far cry from the early days in a lot of ways. One massive alteration in terms of production is the much more aesthetically pleasing and slick appearance of events. Both for the fans at home and those watching live in the arena, the promotion as a whole has become a well oiled machine, working like clockwork on the most part. For the past 20 years, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan has been on hand to see the promotion grow from a guilty sin to a legitimate mainstay in the sports world.

The likeable Rogan also reaches much further than the mixed martial arts world, with his own podcast and successful stand up shows, the 48 year old from New Jersey has his thumbs in many pies right now.

His partnership with the often clumsy and equally entertaining Mike Goldberg could not be scripted. Like something out of an 80’s US sitcom, Rogan and Goldberg make the perfect commentating pair, but with rumours of the UFC being up for sale rampant, there’s been a lot of talk about Joe Rogan calling it a day on commentating fights.

The larger than life Rogan discussed much during his recent interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, starting with the hot topic of the month; Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather:

Do you think Conor vs. Floyd Mayweather could actually happen?
Um, I don’t think that it’s real. But, it could be. And it wouldn’t be a good fight for Conor. I can’t imagine a world where Floyd Mayweather doesn’t box as good as Conor. 

Speaking of Mayweather – is it harder to go from MMA to boxing or boxing to MMA?
Boxing to MMA for sure, because there’s a far greater learning curve in the grappling, and there’s no grappling in boxing – but MMA does have boxing. MMA fighters have some knowledge of boxing, and some of them are much better at it than others. Like, there’s some guys that I think could go into boxing right now and be successful. Uriah Hall‘s a perfect example. He’s got lightning-fast hands, he is a super athlete and his hand techniques are so sharp and clean. I think that he can go into boxing and actually do really well on a professional level. I think Anderson Silva in his prime probably could have done well as a professional boxer. 

But, what do I think would happen if Roy Jones Jr. fought Conor in an MMA match? Conor would fuck him up…

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But, what do I think would happen if Roy Jones Jr. fought Conor in an MMA match? Conor would fuck him up…, 100 percent. I would bet the house. I would literally bet my house that Conor would fuck him up. Unless Conor went crazy and cocky and decided to walk towards Floyd with his chin down, and Floyd cold-cocks him. Like have you ever seen Ray Mercer versus Tim Sylvia? Ray Mercer, who is an Olympic gold medalist and world heavyweight champion at one time, fought [MMA fighter] Tim Sylvia in an MMA match. It was supposed to be a boxing match, but the commission wouldn’t approve it because Ray Mercer was a world champion and Tim Sylvia had never fought as a boxer professionally.

So they fought, and they had gloves on in an MMA fight, but they made an agreement where it was gonna be just boxing. But Tim Sylvia went against the agreement and kicked him, and you can see Ray Mercer look at him like, “You motherfucker, I can’t believe you just kicked my leg.” And then Ray Mercer hits Tim Sylvia with a right hand from the bottom of the Earth. He pulled the right hand out of Mordor and slammed it through the back of Tim Sylvia’s head. It was an awful, awful knockout. A one-punch, brutal knockout. 

See, Floyd Mayweather is not really that kind of a puncher, and with MMA gloves, probably even less so. But I don’t think it’s gonna happen. If it does happen, I’ll be shocked. I mean, if that’s what they’re meeting about, if Conor says, “I can make a lot of money,” and they get together and they decide they’re gonna make 100 million bucks, who knows? I mean, maybe the UFC co-promotes it with Floyd Mayweather and Conor goes in there and gets lit up, and then says, “Hey, I realize this is not my sport, I gotta go back to MMA,” then that’s possible too. I just can’t imagine a world where he’s quitting.

What about the rumors that the UFC is for sale?
Um, I don’t know about that, I don’t know what’s going on. You know, I get conflicting stories about that. But if the sale goes through, I’m a ghost. That’s a fact. That’s a fact.

Yeah? You’ll be gone?
I’m not working for anybody else. If the sale goes through I’m outta there. I’m already wondering whether or not I can continue doing this as it is. I willalways be a fan, I’ll always love it, but shit, I’ve been working for the UFC on and off for almost 20 years. And that’s more than I’ve done anything in my life. I’d like to move on. The only other thing I’ve done longer than that is stand-up comedy, but you know, with stand-up comedy I’m constantly writing new material, I’m traveling, I do it out of my schedule, I do it whenever I want. You know, it’s a very different thing calling fights rather than just being a fan. I’ll always be a fan, for sure, but as far as calling fights…boy, I don’t see that going on very much longer.

Source: Rolling Stone