Longtime UFC commentator Joe Rogan has opened up on why he stopped working events that aired on FOX.
Rogan’s role in the promotion has decreased over the years but he is still the main color commentator for the UFC and beloved by fight fans around the world.
He went from calling every event down to only 10-12 events per year. The reason for that is due to the promotion running so many events that are practically on each and every weekend.
He first stopped doing the Fight Night events, which is understandable and at the time, the big FOX events he called had high caliber fights on the card.
With time, that slowly but surely stopped and when Rogan signed his recent contract with the promotion, he eventually opted to cut the latter from his schedule.
It should be noted that there are several reasons for him stop calling FOX events including the financial side of things.
“My contract is with the UFC and I was never working for FOX,” Rogan said on his Fight Companion podcast for UFC Fight Night 130 on Sunday (transcript courtesy of MMAJunkie). “That was one of the stipulations of my newer contract (with the UFC), was I said I didn’t want to do the FOX events anymore. This year, I don’t do any of the FOX events. You’ll notice when there’s big fights on FOX, I don’t do any of them – none of them. Zero. Stopped doing it – didn’t want to do it anymore. Too much work, too much travel. (Wearing a) suit is not a big deal because they have the suit there for me, but my issue was FOX actually paid me less money – less money to do the events on FOX. I was like, ‘You guys are high.’”
Add in money as well as travel and workload, it bothered Rogan but they did not outweigh the fact that he had differences of opinion with FOX Sports executives and producers in his ear for the very first UFC on FOX event, which was headlined by a heavyweight title fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos.
“They got in my ear,” Rogan said. “The very first events for FOX, they were like telling me what to do. They were telling me to take it down a notch. ‘Don’t be so amped up about that guy,’ I was like, ‘What? What are you doing here?’ I go, ‘Listen, I do commentary. This is what I do. I’ve been doing it forever. This is how I do it. If you think you can change me, then we’re not going to work together.’ We had a real problem for the first event. It was a FOX production.
“I didn’t like it. They want a sports guy. Look, MMA is what it is. It’s fighting. It is a very specific kind of sport. I’ve been doing it the way I’ve been doing it forever. If you don’t like the way I do it, that’s fine. Don’t hire me. But don’t try to get me to become some sports guy. I’m not interested in that at all.”
“They stopped doing it after the first event when I voiced my displeasure,” Rogan said. “I let them know really clearly, ‘Look, we’re not doing this. We’re not going to change how I do it to make you happy. If you don’t like the way I do it, it’s not an option for you to direct me and tell me to do it the way you like it, because you think that’s how.’ They were producers or executives. I don’t agree with them, and I’m not doing it that way.”
Rogan added that as of right now, he’s not sure what his future holds with the promotion and his role as the main color commentator.
It should be noted that he typically signs one-year deals with the promotion in the summertime.
“This is what I do,” Rogan said. “I get amped up. If some (expletive) goes down and guys are trading blows and I’m screaming, it’s because I feel that way. It’s legitimate passion. I’m not faking it. They let it go after a while, but it’s not like they fought for me when I quit, either.”
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