Joe Rogan: FOX wanted me to be a ‘sports guy’ and paid me less money

During the earlier days of the FOX Sports’ coverage of UFC fights, Joe Rogan could be seen and heard at the broadcast booth. But that stint ended in 2016, and according to the veteran UFC analyst, it was because the network tried to impose a certain style of commentary on him, which he was totally against.

“I didn’t like when I first started doing it for them, they got in my ear,” Rogan said during the recent episode of his Fight Companion podcast (transcript via MMAWeekly). “The very first events for FOX, they were like telling me what to do. They were telling me to take it down a notch. Don’t be so amped up about that guy. I was like, ‘What? What are you doing here?’”

“I go, ‘Listen, I do commentary. This is what I do. I’ve been doing it forever,” he continued. “This is how I do it. If you think you can change me, then we’re not going to work together.’ We had a real problem for the first event. It was a FOX production.”

“I didn’t like it. They want a sports guy,” he continued. “Look, MMA is what it is; it’s fighting. It is a very specific kind of sport. I’ve been doing it the way I’ve been doing it forever. If you don’t like the way I do it, that’s fine. Don’t hire me. But don’t try to get me to become some sports guy. I’m not interested in that at all.”

Rogan still does the UFC’s pay-per-view events in the United States to avoid the constant traveling, which is one issue he had working the FOX cards. The other issue is that he was actually paid less, despite the network’s demands.

“You’ll notice when there’s big fights on FOX, I don’t do any of them; none of them. Zero. Stopped doing it; didn’t want to do it anymore,” Rogan said. “Too much work, too much traveling. My issue was FOX actually paid me less money, less money to do the events on FOX. I was like, ‘You guys are high.’

Nowadays, Rogan does his “commentaries” for smaller cards through the Fight Companion podcast, usually alongside former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub and Eddie Bravo as the regular guests.