Joe Rogan has called thousands of rounds inside the octagon, but UFC 330 in Philadelphia gave fans two separate reasons to wonder if the longtime commentator was having an off night behind the microphone.
The first slip was harmless enough. As Edson Barboza’s career wound down in a losing effort against Esteban Ribovics, Rogan got caught up in the moment while reflecting on the Brazilian’s decade-plus of memorable outings.
“Edson has been in some wars. Crazy f**king wars,” Rogan said on the broadcast, before catching himself. “Oops! Some wars.”
Barboza had absorbed a nasty shin injury that left him bleeding through the first round, yet he pushed on into the second before Ribovics’ output forced referee Herb Dean to step in at 1:32. Barboza set his gloves down in the cage afterward, closing the book on his UFC run.
In his post-bout interview with Rogan, he kept it simple: “Every single match I promise, I did my best. Thank you, thank you so much.”
That moment was an understandable lapse from a broadcaster caught up in an emotional send-off. The second one was harder to explain away.
Later in the card, welterweight champion Islam Makhachev put together a decision win over Ian Machado Garry to defend his 170 lb (77 kg) title and push his winning streak to 17 in a row, moving past Anderson Silva’s long-standing record.
As Rogan broke down what makes Makhachev so difficult to deal with against bigger opponents, he tried to rattle off a résumé of names Makhachev had physically dominated.
“The tax that he has to pay to hold these bigger stronger guys down. Look at what he did to Justin Gaethje. Look at what he did to Dustin Poirier. Look at what he did to Charles Olivera,” Rogan said in the broadcast.
Two of those three names check out. Makhachev has notable octagon history with both Dustin Poirier and Charles Oliveira. Justin Gaethje is a different story entirely. Makhachev has never shared the cage with him. That result belongs to Khabib Nurmagomedov, who submitted Gaethje back when Makhachev was still building his own case as one of the roster’s most dangerous grapplers.
Whether it was a long night of commentary or simply the two Dagestani standouts blurring together in his head, Rogan credited Makhachev with a result that isn’t his.
