VIDEO | Fans Loudly Chant ‘Free Joe Rogan’ During UFC 271 In Houston, Texas
Footage has emerged of spectators loudly chanting “free Joe Rogan” during the UFC 271 card last weekend at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas – amid the recent controversy surrounding the longtime promotional color commentator.
Rogan, who has received criticizm during the last number of weeks, recently came under fire after a viral video surfaced on social media detailing no less than 23 instances of Rogan using the n-word.
In January, Rogan and his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience was accused of promoting and spreading “dangerous misinformation” on his platform with Spotify, particularly regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as vaccinations and methods of dealing with symptoms of the viral infection.
Spotify CEO, Daniel Ek claimed that he didn’t believe it was right to attempt to silence Joe Rogan amid his recent controversy
Amid his most recent controversy, Rogan, who was initially booked to feature in the commentary booth of UFC 271 on Saturday last alongside play-by-play lead, Jon Anik, and former two-weight champion, Daniel Cormier, was pulled from the broadcast late on Friday night.
The promotion released a statement detailing how Rogan had a scheduling conflict that would prevent him from taking commentary duties at the pay-per-view event, with former undisputed UFC middleweight champion, Michael Bisping replacing him in the booth – making his flagship event bow.
However, following the culmination of the event, UFC president, Dana White confirmed that the statement regarding a scheduling conflict for Rogan was “bullsh*t” – claiming that the latter simply did not want to work the event, as well as maintaining he was unaware when Rogan would return to the broadcast.
During the event, multiple Twitter accounts detailed how spectators at the sold-out Toyota Center had continually chanted “free Joe Rogan” during the card, amid the recent controversy surrounding the longtime podcast host, standup comedian, and commentator.
Prior to the event, UFC middleweight champion, Israel Adesanya also attempted to defend Rogan during a pre-fight press conference for UFC 271.
“First off, let me take this one, hold up,” Israel Adesanya said. “I’m black, I can take this one. Look… there’s a lot of c*nts in this game. There’s a lot of snakes in this game. I’ve been in this fight game since 2008. And Joe Rogan is one of the nicest, coolest, humble motherf*ckers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Understand that. You know it’s – f*ck the noise, man. You know what they’re trying to do. You can’t control the man (Joe Rogan) and he’s got the biggest platform in the world right now.”
