Joe Rogan gets paid to talk for a living.
When he’s not commentating stateside UFC pay-per-view (PPV) events, the former Fear Factor host is holed up in his Texas compound pumping out the No. 1 podcast on Spotify, or popping ‘shrooms in the basement of his new comedy club in Austin.
But when you talk as often as Rogan does, facts have a way of getting mixed up, jumbled together, or just flat-out ignored, like in this embarrassing instance. Former UFC title contender Chael Sonnen suggests some of that word vomit, including Rogan’s bizarre critique of UFC legend Georges St-Pierre, can be attributed to marijuana.
Rogan suggested welterweight journeyman Jorge Masvidal is the superior fighter.
“That’s not a rational statement,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel (transcribed by Drake Riggs). “Joe Rogan is fantastic at his job and when you talk a lot you get some things wrong. He put Masvidal over as an example that today’s welterweights are far superior and they’re better than Georges St-Pierre. We should just dismiss this. What Joe said and how he did this math is very common, but I would like to correct you to what a non-420 mind can come up with. Joe got to that point by stating that the competition is harder now than it was then. What does the competition have to do with the guy? Georges is the best. That’s your answer. Ever.”
St-Pierre (26-2) captured championship titles at both welterweight and middleweight and holds multiple UFC records, including takedowns landed at 90. “Rush” also leads the 170-pound division in title fight wins at 12, which is double what Kamaru Usman was able to accomplish during his impressive reign.
Masvidal has 16 losses, holds zero UFC records, and is mired in a three-fight losing streak. “Gamebred” has also been taken down over 30 times in his UFC career. Probably not the kind of statistics to bolster any argument by Rogan, regardless of era.
“What kind of divisible are you going to put in when Georges goes out there and dominates a wrestling champion like Josh Koscheck?” Sonnen continued. “Or knocks out a world champion like Matt Hughes? Or passes the guard of a jiu-jitsu ace like Nick Diaz? What kind of equation are you putting into the gap? Which 170-pounder do you believe can take Georges St-Pierre down? What 170-pounder out there do you believe Georges cannot take down? Let’s just start with that. You cannot deduce one entity by drawing a conclusion to others, and if you do it, we should dismiss you. And we should tell the kids in the backseat, ‘That guy is on drugs.’”