Israel Adesanya will defending his UFC middleweight title this weekend – but Joe Rogan won’t be there to witness it.
New Zealand superstar Israel Adesanya will defending his UFC middleweight title this weekend – but commentator Joe Rogan won’t be there to witness it.
The 32-year-old Adesanya will take on Robert Whittaker at UFC 271, but controversial figure Rogan will not be in attendance due to a “scheduling conflict”.
Watch UFC 271: Adesanya vs Whittaker LIVE on Main Event available on Kayo & Foxtel, Sunday 13th February from 2pm AEDT. ORDER NOW >
According to TSN Sports, former middleweight champion Michael Bisping will commentate the highly-anticipated bout alongside John Anik and Daniel Cormier.
Anik also served as MC at the ceremonial weigh-in on Saturday, a role Rogan usually fulfils.
Rogan has copped intense backlash over the past few weeks for spreading “misinformation” about the Covid-19 pandemic on his podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
UFC boss Dana White was asked about Rogan at a press conference on Friday, but Adesanya quickly intervened.
“I’m black, I can take this one,” he said.
“There’s a lot of c***s 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***ers I’ve had the pleasure of working with, understand that.
“F*** the noise, you know what they’re trying to do, you can’t control them, man, and he’s got the biggest platform in the world right now so that’s my n***** Joe Rogan, f*** the noise, just keep doing you Joe, have some mushrooms.”
The last time Adesanya and Whittaker faced off in the Octagon, he claimed a second-round KO victory at Marvel Stadium in October 2019.
The action at Houston’s Toyota Centre kicks off at 10am AEDT, but the main card doesn’t get underway until at least 2pm. Don’t expect to see Adesanya and Whittaker in the Octagon until around 3.30pm.
You can watch UFC 271 on Main Event, while the prelims will be streamed on Kayo.
UFC 271 card
Main card
Israel Adesanya (c) vs Robert Whittaker – middleweight title
Derrick Lewis vs Tai Tuivasa – heavyweight
Jared Cannonier vs Derek Brunson – middleweight
Bobby Green vs Nasrat Haqparast – lightweight
Kyler Phillips vs Marcelo Rojo – lightweight
Preliminary card
Andrei Arlovski vs Jared Vanderaa – heavyweight
Roxanne Modafferi vs Casey O’Neill – women’s flyweight
William Knight vs Maxim Grishin – heavyweight
Carlos Ulberg vs Fabio Cherant – light heavyweight
Early preliminary card
Leomana Martinez vs Ronnie Lawrence – bantamweight
Alexander Hernandez vs Renato Moicano – lightweight
AJ Dobson vs Jacob Malkoun – middleweight
Douglas Silva de Andrade vs Sergey Morozov – bantamweight
Jeremiah Wells vs Mike Mathetha – welterweight
Originally published as UFC 271 live: Bizarre reason for Joe Rogan’s commentary snub
