“This Is Insane” – Joe Rogan Explains Why He Didn’t Practice Social Distancing at UFC 249

UFC 249 is in the books. However, there was so much different about it than the usual events that it will be talked about for some time. The absence of the crowd made it a very different experience for everyone involved. That included commentators, Daniel Cormier, Joe Rogan and John Anik as well.

Despite testing everyone multiple times, the UFC still wanted everyone to practice social distancing. However, that didn’t sit very well with Joe Rogan. A mandatory presence at every UFC event, Joe interviews fighters inside the Octagon after their fights. He wanted to do the same this time around as well. The UFC, instead, asked him to conduct the interviews from a distance.

This didn’t sit very well with Joe. For all the years of covering the sport, he has become accustomed to the proximity with fighters that are just coming off a performance inside the Octagon. Social distancing in this context seemed very odd for him. So much that he even threw a fit about it.

“At least they let me do the post-fight interviews in the Octagon,” Joe Rogan said as the trio of commentators discussed the night of fights after it was over.

“You threw a fit,” DC replied. “You threw a fit before the show. This is insane, everyone’s been tested, we’re all clean!” Joe Rogan then explained what is it exactly that makes him want to question the fighter from a close distance.

“They were going to make me do them from like two yards away,” Rogan continued. “We’re all clean. Everyone’s been tested, but they were going to make me do interviews from 50 feet away. I’m like, ‘I can’t, I want to see them, look into their eyes.’”

Joe Rogan discusses the other issues of commentating in an empty arena with John Anik and DC

The whole experience of fighting in the manner UFC 249 happened was unprecedented. Consequently, certain discoveries were made which were hard to predict.

The biggest one was that fighters were listening to the opinions from the commentators, particularly the former two-division champ Daniel Cormier. Carla Esparza and Greg Hardy even credited Cormier for his wisdom that he gave them unknowingly.

“We’ve got to do something about that. If we’re gonna do it like this, we’ve to find a way to not coach these guys,” Cormier said who considers himself a cheat code for fighting.

If the UFC finds anything wrong with the fighters benefitting from unsolicited advice it will the chance to correct as there are two more events this week. However, one can argue that they have their coaches yelling instructions for them anyway.