Ultimate Fighting Championship commentator Joe Rogan is still angered and perplexed what happened a fortnight ago at UFC 223 media day involving Conor McGregor and believes only the Irishman is capable of getting away with such an act.
McGregor crashed media day in an effort to intimidate his long-time rival Khabib Nurmagomedov after the Russian had an altercation with McGregor’s SBG Ireland teammate Artem Lobov days earlier inside the hotel lobby. As a direct result of McGregor’s attack on the bus, the UFC was forced to remove three fights from the card with Lobov immediately pulled from his clash with Alex Caceres for his involvement in the melee. Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg’s fights were scratched due to injuries they suffered from the attack.
Rogan is a big fan of McGregor, although has previously condemned his actions. On his latest podcast, he spoke about just how much worse the situation could have been and how lucky he was that nothing more serious happened (via MMAMania.com).
“But what if it hit Rose? The f*cking world would hate him. What if Rose was blinded in one eye because of that? Ray Borg got cuts in his eyes, so it’s entirely possible. He got glass shards in, he’s got a scratched cornea. Chiesa filed a complaint, which will lead to a lawsuit, I would imagine. If I was Conor, I would settle every f*cking thing outside of a courtroom because if he loses and he gets a felony, he’s f*cked. He probably won’t even be able to come into the country. Switch it around; imagine if Ray Borg threw that dolly and Conor was inside. He’d be gone, his career would be over. That’s one of the more f*cked up things about this is that you know Conor is getting special treatment. He is, and that’s not good for anybody.”
The UFC are now sitting on a gold mine if they were to organise a lightweight title fight between the champion in Nurmagomedov and the man who was stripped of the title in McGregor. The pay-per-view numbers would be astronomical, although they face huge pressure if they were to reward McGregor with a title fight considering the damage he did to the UFC 223 card. They would also cause further blow back if the former interim champion Tony Ferguson was not given the next title shot, as he was originally scheduled to face the Russian before a freak accident filming the promotions for UFC 223 forced him to withdraw.