Joe Rogan came in for some complaints last night with some fans feeling he went overboard in trying to make the case for a fight between Makwan Amirkhani and Andy Ogle having been stopped prematurely during a post-fight interview with the winner.
The fight only lasted eight seconds with Amirkhani catching Ogle with a flying knee right out of the gate, then following up with punches, at which point the referee stepped in and called an end to the contest. Ogle was slumped against the cage at that moment, but then tackled the referee in confusion, not realizing the fight was over.
Rogan clearly disagreed with the ref’s decision, voicing his opinion during the commentary and then quizzing the debuting Amirkhani about it in their post-fight Octagon interview.
Catching wind that some had been upset with his forceful opinion, Rogan turned to social media site Twitter after the event to clear the air.
“Congrats to @MakwanAmirkhani for a spectacular debut!” Rogan wrote. “Some disagreed with me that it was stopped early, but the performance was amazing! My thoughts on a fight like @MakwanAmirkhani vs @thelittleaxe are just that I want to see a fighter have a chance to recover. I respect that some think the stoppage was just, and it’s likely that if it went on @MakwanAmirkhani would have KO’ed him either way.
“Referees have the 2nd toughest job in the sport next to the fighters, mine is far easier. Early calls or not, they’re trying to be safe. Most people thought that the @danhendo was a worst stoppage, but again, the referee is just trying to err on the side of caution.”
Amirkhani, who’d actually told Rogan at the start of their interview that he was a big fan of his, later shrugged off the color commentator’s thoughts on the way the fight went down.
“It didn’t bother me,” Amirkhani said at the post-fight press conference “But I thought [Rogan] was a drunk, because Andy Ogle went for double leg with the referee and the referee tapped, so what should I say? [The] referee made his decision and you ask me, I said he was out.”
