Joe Rogan may not be coming out and talking smack against the UFC like Ronda Rousey is, but it’s clear where he stands on how the promotion is treating Jon Jones.
Jones is currently demanding his release from the UFC after matchmakers ‘lowballed’ him during White House negotiations. UFC CEO Dana White then followed that up by declaring Jones would never fight again on account of his horrifically arthritic hips. Jones laughed off that medical prognosis and Rogan commented on it in his latest episode
with Dustin Poirier.
“He doesn’t want to be done,” Rogan said of Jones. “I know he got stem cells in his hip. I know because I helped him get it. He’s talked about it, I wouldn’t have talked about it but he talked about it. He got it at Ways2Well.”
“He’s feeling a lot better, he does have arthritis in his hip, it bothers him, but it doesn’t bother him enough that he can’t fight. And he’s the greatest of all time. Period.”
The UFC has been getting a lot of bad press lately for being cheapskates, and Rogan supported the idea of everyone competing in the promotion making more.
“I’ve always been of the opinion that fighters should be making more money, period,” he said. “The way I run my comedy clubs, the comedians make 80% of the money. I feel like that’s who we’re paying to see. You’re paying to see them. We make plenty of money with drinks and 20% of the ticket sales. It’s enough. If we had a comedy club and there were no comedians, nobody’s coming, right? Nobody’s coming there just to sit and buy drinks.”
“The whole idea is they’re paying to see someone’s work,” he concluded. “If you fight, that’s what people are paying to see. They are paying to see fighters.”
Rogan isn’t really in a position to tear the UFC a new one over their pay structure, given he takes a paycheck from the company and is friends with top brass. But he did enjoy seeing Ronda Rousey shake things up.
“She had this big long speech about the UFC Paramount deal for $7 billion, and these fighters aren’t making enough money,” he said. “Look, she made some good points. The most important thing is she gets the conversation out there, and it puts pressure on the UFC to pay people more.”
Will it really, though? At this point there’s little evidence that the UFC is going to change their ways. We’ll see over the coming months whether they manage to get Conor McGregor back in the cage or if they’re able to match any of their top stars up with the true top contenders in the division. Thus far in 2026, they haven’t done it yet.
