Rogan: It’s fascinating no one is saying ‘fire McGregor’

Mixed martial arts is not a real sport. Real sports are run at the top level by a not-for-profit corporation, to make sure that the rules are adhered to. Just because you sell more jerseys than any other team doesn’t mean you get to be in Super Bowl, but in MMA it does.

Paul Daley, overcome with frustration, threw a punch at Josh Koscheck after time had run out. He missed. But the UFC threw him out for life, immediately.

Conor McGregor got upset with Khabib Nurmagomedov and threw a hand truck at a bus full of fighters, injuring two so badly they couldn’t fight at all. UFC VP Reed Harris said he was in fear for his life. A security guard reportedly broke his wrist. UFC strawweight champ Rose Namajunas was so shaken she wanted to pull out of her title defense. This wasn’t a heat of the moment lapse of judgment; McGregor gathered up a posse of impossibly stupid hangers-on, and flew across the Atlantic for the attack.

UFC president Dana White said it was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen during his tenure. Yet nothing has been done, because MMA is not a real sport. And because McGregor makes the company tens of millions; firing him would serve only to give the sport’s biggest draw to a business rival.

McGregor’s team is reportedly talking with new lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov about a title defense. The UFC’s mightly marketing department will likely generate tens of millions of dollars of publicity using the attack as a prop.

On a recent Joe Rogan Experience MMA Show podcast, the host talked about it.

He just keeps f***ing up with this kind of stuff and no one’s saying, ‘Get rid of him!’ said Rogan, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. He’s worth so much money. It’s really fascinating. Imagine if Ray Borg and him switched sides. If Ray Borg showed up with all his boys and was screaming and yelling and threw a dolly at the window, it’s a done deal forever. Think about Paul Daley. Paul Daley must be at home going, ‘Motherf***er! F*** Dana White!’

Until you get to that stratosphere that Conor McGregor – there’s so much money to be made, that’s the problem. The rules get bent. All Paul Daley did was throw a punch at Josh Kosheck after. It didn’t even connect! That could have been sorted out.

There’s a level to the game where you’re so valuable – if Conor McGregor does a pay-per-view fight, especially if they do all that crazy nonsense with Mayweather – if they ever did that, they’re just printing money. They’re printing money. It’s so hard for them to not take that money.

I don’t think New York is ever letting that motherf***er fight there again. I just don’t think they’re gonna do that. They don’t play games. That athletic commission is a different commission. They’re new to MMA and that was embarrassing to them. Him throwing the f***ing dolly and the fact that they let him get in there with all his boys, the whole thing was just so thuggish.