Ultimate Fighting Championship is not a fan of the upcoming
spectacle.
Speaking on his podcast of the “JRE MMA Show” on
Wednesday with guests “Big” John McCarthy and Josh
Thomson, color commentator Joe Rogan aired his thoughts about
the
UFC White House card coming up on June 14. The event is to be
held on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., in
an outdoor venue that will be subject to weather and more.
Rogan has spoken up about the event in other contexts, namely that
it will be going on during the U.S. war against Iran at the time.
His observations and grievances this time around were largely
focused on logistics and giving the fighters the best possible
situation to perform for what will be the biggest fight of most of
their lives.
“The ‘White House’ thing is odd,” Rogan offered. “I don’t like it.
I don’t like the idea of fighting outside, at all. And then there’s
June, and it’s D.C., and we looked it up: last year, same day, it
was 100 degrees [Fahrenheit.] That’s hot as f–k. You add the
lights…bugs…how about dehydration? The bugs are a big one. How are
they f—ing going to do anything about the bugs? [UFC President]
Dana [White] was talking about maybe using fans…is that enough? You
gonna get bug strips everywhere? What are you gonna do? How are you
gonna stop the bugs, there’s a lot of bugs. Pesticide the s–t out
of the f—ing White [House]?”
Just like everyone else
The longtime commentator believed that the stage should be equal
for the competitors, and he felt that weather conditions would
change that.
“I just don’t think you should compete in a world championship
fight in a non-controlled environment,” he expressed. “I think it
should be inside of an air-conditioned arena. It should be a
controlled environment, just like [everyone else]…you wouldn’t ask
them to play a world championship basketball game outside in the
sun. That’d be crazy, right? You play in a f—ing air-conditioned
arena, and that’s how it should be.”
He did have a solution, one that might not be feasible for this
design plan.
“Build a f—ing roof. Build a roof. You’ve got all the money in
the world, right? You’re doing this for f—ing America?
Four-thousand seats? You can build a 4,000-seat arena. How big is
that…get a f—ing ‘barndominium.’ Put it in there. We did UFC
[Fight for the Troops] in [airplane] hangars.”
The overall interest in putting the fights at this location is to
have the historic imagery of cage fights while the White House
looms directly behind it like a modern interpretation of Roman
gladiators. Rogan think they could achieve that without putting any
athletes at risk.
“Put [the White House] in the background on TV, who gives a f–k?
When world-class fighters are competing, I don’t think they should
have to compete outside. Imagine if someone loses a fight because
it’s too hot out. Imagine if that becomes a factor. Imagine the
dehydrated fighters, like the dehydrated fighters that are now
being forced 24 hours later to fight in 100-degree heat,” he
concluded on the subject, beyond a reference to UFC 112 in Abu
Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.