UFC color commentator Joe Rogan has spoken out for the first time about the promotion’s controversial uniform deal with Reebok during the latest edition of his podcast with Bellator and Glory fighter, Joe Schilling.
Last week the UFC broke down the nuts and bolts of how much fighters will end up getting paid from the deal which resulted in a backlash from many fighters who stated that they were getting paid more previously from their own individual sponsorship deals with companies which will no longer be valid under the new system which launches in July.
Despite being a long-time UFC employee himself and having a close relationship with Dana White, Rogan admitted that he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the deal.
“I’m not a business man,” Rogan stated. “I’d be the sh-ttiest businessman in the world; if I owned the UFC I would probably file for bankruptcy right now. I would have never gotten it to where it is. I would have never done any of the smart moves these guys have done. I’m an idiot when it comes to business, but I don’t like when I see fighters suffering financially. I don’t like it. At all.”
“Whenever you see these guys complaining and talking about the difference in the amount of pay that they’re getting, that’s not good – just not good,” Rogan continued. “All that stuff had to be worked out. It should have been worked out, I think, before.
“Even the champs get 40 grand. The best guys in the world get 40 grand? That just doesn’t seem like enough to me. It just doesn’t.”
Watch Rogan’s podcast in full below which contains plenty of other combat sports related discussion.
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