While the UFC seems to be pulling all the stops to make sure that UFC 249 does happen on April 18, Joe Rogan seems to have some concerns about the event moving forward.
Rogan, who works as a commentator for the promotion, shared his thoughts on the apparently upcoming event on a recent episode of his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. In the clip, Rogan seems to claim that he’s not nearly as informed about the details of the event as we might assume for someone who works for the promotion. He says that he has no idea where it is and isn’t even sure if he’s going to be there. “I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing, if I’m going to it or not. I don’t know where it is. I don’t even know if it’s in America. I literally right now, as of right now, I don’t know ****. I have no information.”
Rogan also seemed to question if the event should be held at all given the coronavirus pandemic and recommendations coming in from all corners of the globe to stay at home and practice social distancing. “There’s no social distancing in a f****ing cage fight. They’re on top of each other, sweating in each other’s mouths. If Tony Ferguson’s fighting, there’s going to be blood for sure. Everybody that fights Tony Ferguson looks like they fell off a train, so there’s going to be blood. What if one of those guys tests positive? What if Justin Gaethje tests positive? [The] guy’s supposed to be fighting Ferguson. I have a feeling that if someone did test positive, they would kick them off the card. I shouldn’t say kick them off the card — I should say remove them from the card. I would imagine it has to be the right thing to do, and then you would also have to quarantine the people that worked with him in training camp, and you have to test everybody.”
UFC 249 will reportedly be held on tribal land in California to get around restrictions on combat sports and gatherings currently in place throughout the world. Dana White has also said that he’s found a private island to host fights on, but if that’s the truth, Rogan doesn’t seem convinced of it.
Watch the clip for yourself below:
