Sadly some culture wars reach sports. One particularly hot topic is the inclusion of trans athletes in sports and particularly strength and endurance based sports including MMA.
Joe Rogan has been tip toeing around issues involving transgendered individuals ever since his lucrative spotify deal kicked off.
Rogan had secured a multiyear exclusive licensing deal with Spotify back in May of 2020. The deal is rumored to be worth in the north of $200 million. So Rogan has softened his stance considerably.
But another less likely subject found himself under attack – progressive comedian Bill Burr. Burr is a beloved name in comedy and is one of the rare people who called out Rogan to his face about some of his more fringe attitudes during a guest spot on the podcast. However this obviously didn’t give him immunity from the attack.
Burr was criticized by Fallon Fox for doing a joke where he admits his reasoning is old fashioned and cannot see trans individuals participating in sports against women.
“Transgender athletes. I don’t f*cking understand that. Yeah, I understand it. You know, you want to switch around? I don’t give a s*it, but I’m a sports fan. That’s a really new concept to me that you can be a dude, right? Ranked 80th in the f*cking world. You have your dick cut off, you put on a sports bra, and now you’re the number one tennis player in the world just coming out there with your man shoulder.”
Fox went on to double up on her point featuring a clip of Burr and Rogan talking on a podcast at an unknown date, likely years earlier.
“That doesn’t seem fair. I might be wrong. I might just be an old guy. I have no idea. But I’m hearing rumors like some of them are getting into that. Me? You can’t have that s*it. Am I nuts? That is a dick list, dude. Beating the s*it out of a woman.”
“I think that transgender women, like men to women, should fight transgender women to men. And we’ll see what’s the better combination.”
“Society should be more acceptable, and then we’ll create a whole new class. 2020 fights. Yeah. Yeah. That’s what’s even say tranny do. UFC if you say tranny championship of the world, it’s time for trannies fighting out of the blue corner. I used to be a dude. Now he’s a chick.”
We mentioned Rogan had softened his stance on trans MMA participation. When Alana McLaughlin made her debut was long silent on the issue and only responded on his friend Tim Dillon’s show saying: