Joe Rogan gets brutally honest about what troubled him about early days of MMA commentary: "It's super disrespectful"

Joe Rogan recently expressed his discontent with the commentary during the early days of MMA. He said he was unhappy with people who had limited knowledge of combat sports calling MMA bouts in the past.

Notably, due to his immense love for mixed martial arts, Rogan joined the UFC's broadcasting team in 1997 and has been with the MMA organization ever since. He developed a close friendship with UFC CEO Dana White, who was instrumental in the rise of the American podcaster in the MMA scene.

Rogan recently had former UFC light heavyweight title challenger Khalil Rountree Jr. on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. During their conversation, the 57-year-old voiced his displeasure with MMA commentary back in the day, saying:

''So, one of the things that I really struggled with in the early days of commentary is that regular sports people were starting to do MMA commentary and they were talking about fighters the same way they would talk about like a football player who drops a pass or a basketball player who misses a shot, very disrespectfully. They were saying a lot of sh*t. I was like, 'Hey, hey, hey, you don't know what the fu*k you're talking about.'''

Rogan continued:

''The early days in particular. There was a lot of that. There was a lot of people that they wanted to get credit for their work by just being that arrogant...it's just, it's super disrespectful.''

Check out Joe Rogan's comments below (40:48):

As for Rountree Jr., after an unsuccessful title bid against then-champion Alex Pereira at UFC 307, he bounced back and secured a unanimous decision win over Jamahal Hill in the main event of UFC Baku last month.

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Joe Rogan expresses his admiration for a current UFC champion

In the aforementioned conversation with Khalil Rountree Jr., Joe Rogan praised reigning UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja, who successfully made his fourth title defense against Kai Kara-France in the co-main event of UFC 317.

Rogan was in awe of Pantoja's abilities inside the octagon, as he said:

''Pantoja, that dude does not get the love that he deserves. When that guy gets into the octagon, it’s like a fu*king leopard just entered the room. It’s wild, man. It’s wild. He’s got this feeling about him that champions have when they are just fu*king feeling it. Like a jaguar or something. A killer, just some elite killer. If that motherfu*ker was a middleweight champ, he would be a superstar. To me, it drives me nuts.'' [1:50:48]