Morning Report: Joe Rogan releases statement about his commentary during UFC 223 main event

On Saturday night at UFC 223 in Brooklyn, N.Y., Khabib Nurmagomedov took a unanimous decision over last-minute replacement Al Iaquinta to claim the UFC lightweight championship. The fight was a rout, with Nurmagomedov winning every round and earning two 10-8 rounds on two of the judges’ scorecards. If you had only been listening to the fight on the radio though, you might not have known the fight was so one-sided.

Throughout the fight, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan was surprisingly critical of Nurmagomedov’s performance, particularly in the third and fourth rounds when Nurmagomedov and Iaquinta engaged almost exclusively on the feet, outside of Nurmagomedov’s usual comfort zone. After the fight, Rogan took to social media to explain why his commentary was so negative towards Nurmagomedov’s performance, saying that “The Eagle” is one of his favorite fighters ever but that Iaquinta showed holes in Nurmagomedov’s game.

“It is insanely rare to have a fighter as dominant as Khabib Nurmagomedov in one of the most talent stacked divisions to go 25 and 0 is incredible, but to do it without even having a rough moment in a fight is completely unheard of. The closest thing to adversity he’s had to face in the Octagon before Saturday was one solid punch that was landed by Michael Johnson in a fight that was otherwise a horrifically one-sided mauling.

“When I’m commentating on someone that dominant I am constantly looking for cracks in their armor, and on Saturday night we saw the first of those cracks exposed by an incredibly game Al Iaquinta. Most people, myself included, expected the highly favored Khabib to rag doll his last minute opponent the way he’s done to everyone else he faced in the Octagon, and that was the case in the early going, but as the fight got into the later rounds Al was able to keep the fight standing and we saw some possible flaws in Khabib’s defense.

“Make no mistake about it, Khabib won that fight by a landslide, but it went to a decision, and that in and of itself was an upset. When I’m looking at a fighter as spectacularly talented as Khabib fighting a guy like Al who is an almost impossible underdog I’m not just looking at this fight, but I’m looking at openings that can possibly be exploited by the best fighters in the division. I saw some of those openings Saturday night, and I certainly found them interesting. In no way am I biased against Khabib, in fact I’m a massive fan of his and he’s one of my all time favorite fighters. If any of you were annoyed by my concentrating on that aspect of an incredibly dominant performance by one of the most impressive guys in the history of the division, please accept my sincere apology. When I commentate on fights my goal is to highlight the action and make it more exciting for the fans at home. Obviously all this is done live in real time, and if I had to go back and do it again I would often be able to do a better job. Even after all the years I’ve been commentating I still learn something new about the position with each and every event, and when that stops happening that will most likely be when I quit.”

While it may not have been the early stoppage many predicted, Nurmagomedov did show complete domination over the course of 25 minutes, securing six takedowns and outlanding Iaquinta 134 to 41, including outstriking Iaquinta 37-7 and 35-15 for the two rounds the fight did not go to the ground, per FightMetric.

With the win, Nurmagomedov became the UFC’s 10th undisputed lightweight champion and the first champion from Russia. He now has his sights set on superfights with Conor McGregor orGeorges St-Pierre.