Brendan Schaub responds to backlash after bashing strawweight division

Brendan Schaub didn’t watch the recent UFC Shenzhen card, which was topped by a strawweight title fight between challenger Weili Zhang and champ Jessica Andrade. In fact, in the wake of this UFC Shenzhen main event, which Zhang won by first-round TKO, Schaub went so far as to claim he doesn’t care about the strawweight division.

“People are Tweeting me saying ‘Oh what’s up now Schaub, didn’t call Zhang over Jessica Andrade,’” he said on his  Below the Belt podcast recently. “I sure didn’t! Or in the [replies to the] post about my son [people were saying] ‘Oh where the f**k were you on Zhang vs. Andrade?’

“Dude, let me be super clear,” Schaub added bluntly. “Not only did I not watch it, I don’t give a f**k about women’s strawweight. I didn’t even watch it, and when someone told me [what happened] I said ‘That’s cool man.’”

Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience Fight Companion for last weekend’s UFC 242 pay-per-view, UFC commentator Joe Rogan asked Schaub about his comments on the strawweight division, and inquired as to whether the former UFC heavyweight experienced any backlash.

“Didn’t people get mad at you?” Rogan asked. “You were talking sh*t about the strawweight division.”

“I don’t know,” Schaub explained. “I’m sure [they did]. I don’t care. I have a fight show — it’s kind of like a fight show, it’s a lifestyle show — and it’s like ‘oh there’s fights this weekend.’ I’m like ‘I don’t know who [Zhang] is. Andrade for the win.’ That’s how I covered [the UFC Shenzhen card].”

Earlier in the same segment, Rogan praised Weili Zhang for her impressive, title-winning stoppage of Andrade. At that point, Schaub admitted he’s become quite impressed with the new Chinese champion too.

“She starched Andrade,” Schaub said. “Beat the sh*t out of her. 40 seconds. She’s like 20-1? 20 in a row? She’s a monster.”

What do you think of these followup comments from Brendan Schaub?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/11/2019.