Joe Rogan returns to commentary duties at UFC 259

Joe Rogan will be back at the commentary desk for UFC 259, alongside play-by-play man Jon Anik and former two-division champion Daniel Cormier.

UFC 259 goes down this Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card will be headlined by a light heavyweight title fight between champion Jan Blachowicz and challenger Israel Adesanya, who is the promotion’s middleweight champion. The card will also feature a featherweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Megan Anderson, a bantamweight title fight between Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling, and a host of other high-profile matchups.

While Rogan has greatly reduced his commitments to the UFC, he will provide color commentary for this blockbuster card, per MMA Junkie. This will be his first time calling a UFC card since UFC 258 last month.

Rogan will be joined at the commentary desk by Anik and Cormier, while Megan Olivi will serve as the card’s sideline reporter, and Michael Eaves, Paul Felder and Chael Sonnen will handle the post-fight show on ESPN. Bruce Buffer will serve as ring announcer.

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.

While Rogan is a staple of big UFC cards, his commentary has been the subject of some controversy recently, with some members of the MMA community suggesting that he’s lost a step.

According to Anik, however, Rogan remains one of the best commentators in the game, and isn’t going anywhere, contrary to his many duties outside the UFC.

“I can assure you that he ain’t going nowhere,” Anik told MMA Fighting earlier this year. “Again, I hate to put words in his mouth, but he absolutely loves this job and I think we had a little international flare with the pay-per-views at the end of the year — UFC 251, 253, 254 — that he wasn’t a part of because they were happening in Abu Dhabi. But hopefully, domestic pay-per-views return more so in 2021 and he gets a chance to get back out there more often.

“It’s not that easy stepping up every eight weeks trying to do one of these things and constantly having a revolving door with the broadcast team, but I love the guy. I’ve never been closer with the guy and hopefully he’s here well past me.”

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