Rogan Won’t Be Calling UFC 249

Photo by: Patrick Kehoe/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Longtime color commentator, Joe Rogan, used to call every UFC fight card alongside the since-supplanted Mike Goldberg. But then the promotion ramped up its combat sports schedule — adding a boatload of international events in the process — and Rogan scaled down his involvement, limited to just pay-per-view (PPV) events.

Making millions on his podcast probably helped with the decision.

But UFC 249 is one fight card he won’t be attending. Not only is “Khabib vs. Ferguson” going to take place behind closed doors, the April 18 line up is likely to end up in some remote location, away from the meddling government and its coronavirus quarantine.

“The UFC is talking about putting on a fight on April 18th,” Rogan said on his official podcast. “I don’t know how they’re gonna do that. I don’t know if they’re gonna be able to do that in the United States. They’re talking about doing it in a place with less than 10 people, just an open arena. I guess someone’s gonna commentate it, it’s not gonna be me, and they’re gonna be duking it out in an empty place. And they’re gonna try to do that on the 18th.”

UFC President Dana White recently told the combat sports media that he was close to finalizing a location for UFC 249 but as of this writing, nothing has been confirmed. We can probably rule out Russia after this week’s proposed travel ban and things are going from bad to worse in the United States.

In fact, UFC was already forced to postpone three fight cards in March and will likely stay inactive until April 18. What measures the promotion plans to take in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic is unknown, but the clock is ticking.

Any guesses?