Joe Rogan admits it was “really hard” calling “friend” Daniel Cormier’s fight at UFC 252

Long-time UFC commentator Joe Rogan says it was difficult to call the action for his friend Daniel Cormier’s title fight with Stipe Miocic at UFC 252.

In main event of Saturday’s UFC 252 card, Cormier stepped into the Octagon for a final time challenging Miocic for the UFC heavyweight crown. In the end, the fight, which marked the pair’s third meeting, went the way of Miocic, who won by unanimous decision. Unfortunately, the bout featured a dosage of controversy, as Miocic landed an inadvertent eye-poke mid-way through the affair that reduced Cormier’s vision and his ability to perform.

Speaking to his broadcast partner Dominick Cruz post-fight, Rogan admitted that watching Cormier get eye-poked en route to losing a close decision in his retirement fight was a difficult experience.

“It’s always hard calling a fight for one of your friends… It’s really hard to see him walk out of there not being able to see out of one eye.”@joerogan discussed the difficulty of calling @dc_mma‘s fight at #UFC252 pic.twitter.com/kOCKOt22UQ

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 16, 2020

“Stipe Miocic put on a tremendous performance,” Rogan told Cruz, the former UFC bantamweight champion. “He had DC badly hurt in the second and he really did everything he needed to do to defend the title.

“It’s really difficult to watch as a friend of DC’s, as a colleague, as a person that does commentary with him,” Rogan added. “It’s hard. It’s always to call fights for one of your friends. It’s hard for me to call your fights. It’s really hard seeing him walk out of there not being able to see out of one eye. That was really hard. That said, I think Stipe fought the exact fight that he had to fight.”

Joe Rogan has been working for the UFC since 1997. Initially, he served as a backstage interviewer for the promotion, but quickly moved into a color commentary role. He has worked for the promotion ever since, and has become as much a part of big UFC cards as the Octagon itself.

Over the last few years, a number of high-profile fighters, such as Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz, have regularly joined him at the commentary desk.