There’s been a healthy amount of debate raging in the wake of Rampage Jackson’s faux “motorboating” of MMA Heat’s Karyn Bryant. The classlessness of Rampage’s actions need no more ridicule. That point has been made.
As of two days ago, however, there is now a second controversial issue that has come out of this incident. If you’ve been reading some of the MMA blogs out there like Cagepotato and Bloody Elbow, you’re certainly familiar with those sites calling out Joe Rogan for his poor choice of words to describe Yahoo Sports columnist Maggie Hendricks, after she was one of the many journalists to criticize Rampage for his actions.
Rogan’s disagreement with Hendricks’ call to the media to not give Rampage a platform to perform his stunts is an opinion he is entitled to. What was clearly not OK about his actions was his use of the now infamous C-word to describe her.
Rogan got roasted with enough heat from his comments on the MMA Underground forum that he issued a public apology yesterday to Hendricks for what he called her, now he should go a step further and issue a televised apology at some point when Spike is airing the main card.
This is bigger than Joe Rogan. MMA has been dancing around the edge of getting acceptance by the mainstream for years now, whether you consider that to be a network deal, a full nation of states sanctioning the sport, or your neighbor actually understanding that the sport is called mixed martial arts and not ultimate fighting.
If UFC employees, full-time or contracted freelancer’s, are allowed to get away with saying and doing things that in any major sport such as football, basketball, and baseball would warrant suspension’s and/or fines you can be sure the media, and subsequently the public, will be sure and brush it off as a sport not worthy of their time.
It’s a great thing that ESPN is covering MMA, but how long do you think they’ll want to be associated with a sport that’s king organization refuses to punish it’s employees for classless and crude actions and remarks don’t garner any punishing response?
Dana White and the UFC PR department are now on record as saying that “Joe Rogan is an independent contractor and he wrote his own opinion” thereby absolving them of the responsibility to take action. That stance is weak.
After Dana White, Joe Rogan is arguably the most recognizable face the UFC has. He hosts all the weigh-ins, gives insightful interviews in every hype video leading up to every event, and is arguably the best color commentator calling MMA today.
I honestly believe Rogan’s knowledge and ability to break down what is happening in a fight for the layman to understand has helped the UFC grow leaps and bounds. It’s the ability to take what appears to be a boring grappling match and describe intricately what each fighter is trying do within the fight. He is continuously two steps ahead of the action.
For all these reasons, Joe Rogan’s official title as “independent contractor” for the UFC is irrelevant. If he’s weighing in on anything MMA related, he’s doing so as a voice for the UFC, and the UFC knows that.
In any mainstream sport, athletes and commentators occasionally make mistakes, and apologies are issued. We, the people, demand it. Joe Rogan made a mistake. His actions don’t negate the possibility of the sport being accepted as a mainstream attraction, nor did he necessarily set that effort back.
Using his time on air tonight to issue a genuine apology for his words towards Maggie Hendricks would show that the UFC, and therefore MMA, is conscious of wrongdoing by its employees and will seek to rectify those wrongdoings using the correct avenues.
Continuous silence and denial of responsibility only proves those who want to stop the sport’s growth are doing the right thing.
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