UFC Color Commentator Joe Rogan Backs ‘Screwed’ Record-Breaking Fighter

Getty Joe Rogan

Joe Rogan recently gave his take on the UFC 274 scale controversy that ended with Charles Oliveira losing his lightweight belt.

A day before Oliveira was set to defend his strap against Justin Gaethje at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona, “Do Bronx” was unable to make championship weight. Instead of weighing in at 155 pounds, Oliveira hit the scale at 155.5 pounds on two attempts, half a pound over the limit.

Because of that, the belt became vacant right when the headliner began on May 7. Oliveira won the fight via first-round rear-naked choke, but because he was ineligible to earn the belt, the division remains without a champion.

Before the fight, however, two UFC 274 combatants told MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz that the scale fighters were using at the hotel was off. Specifically, they said it showed users weighing a half-pound less than what they actually weighed.

UFC president Dana White told the media during the UFC 274 post-fight press conference that the promotion will now have security monitoring the scale to ensure nothing like this happens again.

Oliveira is now the division’s No. 1 contender. Do Bronx (33-8) is riding an 11-fight win streak and he holds several UFC records, including most finishes (19) and most submissions (16) in the promotion’s history.

Rogan Said Oliveira ‘Got Screwed’ Because of the Scale Controversy

As with all UFC cards, fighters from around the world competed during the Arizona event. Many of them use kilograms instead of pounds, which means they switched the scale from reading pounds to kilograms. Then, a fighter who uses pounds used the scale, and they switched the scale back from kilograms to pounds.

According to the UFC president, this repeated process could lead to the scale misreading weight.

Well, Rogan said during episode No. 1819 of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast that Oliveira “got screwed.” The Brazilian had tweeted prior to the official weigh-in that he was on weight.

“He’s a very, very nice guy,” Rogan said. “And he got screwed in his last fight. There was some shenanigans with the scale. Some people had messed with the scale. Here’s a problem wit these digital scales: foreign fighters, they use kilograms. And in America, obviously, we use pounds.

“These scales are calibrated and then the foreign fighters would reset the scale so they could switch it back to kilograms. So it f**** up the whole calibration. He weighed in the night before the weigh-ins, and he was like, ‘Oh, I’m good to go.’ And then in the morning, he goes and shows up for the weight cut and it’s a pound plus off. And that is directly related to this calibration thing.”

Rogan Said Phoenix ‘Made a Mistake’

Rogan also spoke about the UFC positioning security by the scale moving forward.  “The UFC has a new policy because of this where they have a guard who watches over the scale 24 hours a day,” the UFC color commentator continued. “Like, they have shifts where no one can f*** with the scale.

“If you’re gonna get on that scale to try yourself, they’re gonna watch you like a hawk and you don’t press any buttons. You just get on, what’s your weight, get off. That’s it.”

Rogan’s guest, Cameron Hanes, told Rogan that this controversy was “surprising” because even though the UFC is the biggest MMA organization in the world, they hadn’t had “that figured out.”

“It’s Phoenix,” Rogan responded. “That’s what it is. And it’s not a knock on Phoenix. I love Phoenix. It’s just that the people that are there, don’t do high-level world championship MMA fights on a regular basis. They do a few. We’ve had a good time there. They’ve had some good events there. But, they just made a mistake. They’ll let these guys do it.

“There should have been someone watching the scale. And the scale was off, and that’s a fact.”

Rogan then said that it wasn’t the “best excuse” for Oliveira since his opponent made championship weight. Women’s featherweight Norma Dumont was the only other fighter on the card to miss weight.