Joe Rogan

By Joshua Molina

Joe Rogan is a funny guy who loves the sport of mixed martial arts.

He’s also legitimate athlete in Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu in his own right.

But it’s a good thing no one in the mainstream takes him seriously as a broadcast journalist.

Because he clearly doesn’t understand the power of his words. And clearly, no one with power or influence cares what he says.

Rogan apologized, kind of, for his gay sex joke on live TV before the Carlos Condit vs. Georges St. Pierre fight last Saturday.

He acknowledged that he shouldn’t have said it, but only because he was criticized for it.

Rogan said Martin Kampmann has “come from behind more often than Lance Bass.”

This wasn’t even on the Pay Per View, where the audience is smaller.
It was the live show on FX leading up to the big show, viewed by a couple million people.

Rogan said he wasn’t making fun of gay people. It was simply a gay sex joke. He said he was treating gay sex the same as straight sex, and that it was just a joke.

Besides the obvious ridiculous stereotype that he’s making about what he thinks gay sex is like, Rogan’s joke is below the standards of what should be allowed on respectable, live TV.

The UFC live broadcast should not be a forum for sex jokes of any kind. This was even worse than a sex joke; it was a crude sex joke.

Imagine Chris Collingsworth making such a comment on Football Night in America. It’s just classless and tasteless and does nothing to legitimize the sport in the eyes of advertisers, the public or the mainstream media.

The UFC broadcast team should work to promote the athletic nature of the sport and avoid the promotion of homophobia. Rogan needs to look beyond how he thinks he intended his comment vs. how it was perceived.

What matters is how people perceived his comment, not how he intended it.

If the UFC wants to be taken seriously, it needs to take itself seriously.

And children and teenagers should be able to watch the UFC without it turning into a low-brow comedy act.

The sport should be the focus, not making people laugh at a group that faces discrimination on a daily basis.

Rogan needs to separate his comedy act from his MMA announcing. His gutter talk hurts the credibility of the UFC and all of MMA.

Rogan hasn’t faced any disciplinary actions by the UFC or called out in the mainstream press.

It’s a good thing no one takes Rogan seriously as broadcast journalist.

It’s too bad he doesn’t take himself seriously either.