“I don’t know exactly what he said but maybe he just didn’t like my commentary. I bet he likes it when he wins! I think he’s awesome.”
Earlier this week, Conor McGregor criticized sports personality Joe Rogan for his fight commentary, claiming that the longtime UFC commentator reads off a script.
McGregor’s comments were brought to Rogan’s attention on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, and the 51-year-old handled it very well.
Rogan, who responded to the criticism by calling McGregor an ‘awesome’ fighter, denied reading off a script and joked that ‘The Notorious’ probably doesn’t complain when he’s the one winning fights.
“That is not really true because no one ever gives me a script and that’s a fact,” Rogan said, per JOE’s Darragh Murphy.
”I don’t know exactly what he said but maybe he just didn’t like my commentary. I bet he likes it when he wins! I think he’s awesome.”
After watching the video footage of McGregor’s criticism, Rogan calmly reflected on his commentary for the McGregor-Diaz fights and hailed the Irishman as a ‘one in a billion human being.’
“Well that’s his perception. I understand what he’s saying,” he said.
“Sometimes people think that but it’s very difficult when someone’s calling your fight. If he’s talking about me calling someone’s fight who’s not his friend, that makes much more sense. It’s fucking hard for me. I have a really hard time calling friends’ fights. I don’t know him that well but I like him a lot. I respect the fuck out of him.
”I get his position. That Diaz fight was a good fucking fight. It was a hard fight. I wasn’t calling it like the first fight but I had to call it with the knowledge of the first fight. I had to know what happened in the last fight and in the last fight, Diaz survived a storm, tagged him, had him rocked and then finished him on the ground. That doesn’t mean he didn’t win the second fight.
”It was a close fucking fight. The second fight was a very close fight but you have to acknowledge that the other fight took place.
”He was having fun [with the criticism]. Listen, I think that guy is one of the most dynamic individuals to ever compete in the sport. He’s a special person, a very special person and a very unusual guy.
”Even if he doesn’t beat Khabib ever again or he loses to this guy or loses to Floyd Mayweather. Who cares? He’s still a one in a billion human being.”
McGregor, the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion, is currently being sued for allegedly smashing a man’s phone outside a nightclub in Miami. The 30-year-old is also currently in negotiations with the UFC and expects to return to the Octagon some time in July.