Josh Connor
"It's not like she's not hot," said Rogan. "She's hot as f**k, right? She's got a beautiful body. Great ass. Sorry I said that. Sorry, Miesha. All due respect, but she's a great fighter, too. She's very tough. Miesha probably makes a very small fraction of what Ronda makes and she's elite. She's an outstanding fighter. She's tough as sh*t and people love her. It's weird."
In a weekend where thousands of young women across America dressed up as Ronda Rousey for Halloween, there is no question women continue to inspire and break through glass ceilings at a record pace in 2015. From West Point graduates Captain Kristen Griest and 1st Lieutenant Shaye Haver’s historic graduation from U.S. Army Ranger School to Ronda Rousey’s meteoric rise in the UFC, there seems to be no challenge too great for women with the grit and determination to push the limits of what others once thought to be impossible for them. In the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) market today, women’s MMA is rapidly becoming a critical driver of differentiation between competing fight organizations (UFC, Bellator, etc). Moreover, many fight organizations realize having skilled women compete on fight cards is rapidly moving their MMA product out of the “order qualifier” domain and into the “order winner” component, resulting in competitive advantage. There is no other fight organization where this is more evident than in the world’s leading MMA promotion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Yet still, the UFC and MMA media’s tolerance of Joe Rogan’s sexist comments toward UFC fighter Miesha Tate (on his Joe Rogan Experience podcast) ultimately demonstrate just how far from mainstream status the UFC truly remains in the sports stratosphere.
Without question, combat sports and MMA has always been a rough around the edges niche market where raw honesty and emotions thrive. To outsiders, the sport historically has been characterized by sexism and misogyny and early on in its history it is a fair assessment to state the MMA culture became ingrained with these norms and artifacts over the years. While the sport appears to have made great strides in improving the treatment of women fighters (thanks to the struggles of many early Women’s MMA pioneers of the sport), pockets of sexism and hurdles remain for women who continue to compete today. This couldn’t be more evident than the deafening silence from the UFC and MMA media this week in the wake of Joe Rogan’s unprofessional comments towards UFC bantamweight contender Miesha Tate.
Undeniably, Joe Rogan is a phenomenal UFC color commentator, and has played a vital role in the UFC’s rise to prominence. He also happens to be smart, articulate, well loved by the MMA community, and a comedian. The prism through which this criticism is being levied against Joe Rogan is in his role solely as a UFC color commentator. The fact that he also is a comedian will be used by many to deflect the criticism of his comments, but in large part remains irrelevant. With that all being said, Joe Rogan is the voice of the UFC, a company valued at well over 2 billion dollars and with sponsorship ties to some of the most powerful brands in the world. It is a company whose President Dana White one day envisions standing toe to toe with the likes of the NFL and other major sports promotions. It’s also a company promoting and reaping the benefits of the “strong women” narrative through Ronda Rousey, while simultaneously tolerating blatant sexism towards another woman fighter on its roster by its top color commentator. In any other major sport (or minor sport for that matter), behavior along the lines of Rogan’s would rapidly see the employee subject to corporate discipline and likely termination. Yet in the UFC, no consequences seemingly exist.
Ironically, one need to look no further than Joe Rogan’s in booth commentating partner Mike Goldberg who in 2014 was suspended from his NFL assignment on Fox for hurling mean spirited tweets towards NFL fans who disapproved of his in booth performance of a Lions-Vikings game. For Goldberg, in recognition of his ill advised behavior he released the following mea culpa to the public:
In regard to Rogan’s sexist comments about Tate, the radio silence from the UFC, its major sponsors, and the MMA media is tragic. Even more disappointing is the fact that Joe Rogan’s own podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” used the quote about Miesha’s “nice ass” to promote that episode on Twitter:
Interestingly enough, the UFC is ironically partnered with Fox through its “UFC of Fox” programming deal. If the UFC won’t police its own ranks in regard to Rogan, its time for Fox leadership to put the pressure on the UFC to do so. As lofty as the UFC sets its goals headed into the future, the fact remains that until its leadership takes the appropriate disciplinary measures to eradicate sexist behavior, the sport will continue to fail at mainstream integration attempts and continue to be thought of as a second class citizen by the big four of the sports world (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL). Regardless of Rogan’s personal relationship with Tate or even her feelings on the matter (and perhaps her boyfriend UFC fighter Bryan Caraway's too) the sport has grown too big for behavior like this to go by undressed and given a pass. Doing so directly contradicts the values of American society, and also the UFC narrative of empowering women as witnessed in it's very own Ronda Rousey-Holly Holm promo for UFC 193 below:
At this point, the true feelings of the UFC towards sexist behavior are already clear in light of the inaction towards Rogan's comments. However, if the leadership of the organization were smart, they would already be grooming retired UFC fighter turned commentator and class act Naval Academy grad Brian Stann as Joe Rogan’s eventual replacement in the commentating booth long term.
Joe Rogan Experience Podcast:
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March 2016
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