Mixed martial arts fans waited a long time to see Jon “Bones” Jones return to the octagon and the 30-year-old did not disappoint as he defeated Daniel Cormier via a knockout in the third round of the bout to recapture the UFC Light Heavyweight championship.
After looking good through the opening two rounds, everything changed pretty quickly in the third round for Cormier after Jones landed a massive head-kick and followed it up with the final blows to seal the victory.
Following the bout, UFC commentator Joe Rogan interviewed both Jones and Cormier inside the octagon. However, after bursting out into tears inside the octagon and possibly dealing with a major concussion, Cormier did not appear to be in any shape to speak to Rogan or the media in general, but Rogan still went through with it.
Rogan even said during the interview that he doesn’t like interviewing fighters after they’ve been knocked out, but he still went through with it and he faced a lot of criticism online for it.
Despite the post-fight interviews being part of his job, Rogan believes he shouldn’t have gone through with the interview regardless of how big the fight was and should have just left Cormier alone. On Sunday, Rogan took to Twitter and Instagram to offer a sincere apology to Cormier.
UFC president Dana White later told USA Today that the UFC did not encourage Rogan to interview Cormier on the live broadcast after he got knocked out, but he also said he understands why Rogan did it.
“They told Rogan not to do the interview with him,” White said. “Rogan did it (anyway). You have to let the guy talk. I think you have to let the guy talk.”
Rogan also mentioned in his lengthy Twitter apology that the decision was all on him and that no one told him to go interview Cormier.
Many fans and fighters have reached out to Rogan since he made the public apology, and all of them seem to be pretty supportive of the UFC commentator.
Cormier hasn’t commented on the situation just yet, but hopefully he accepts Rogan’s apology and turns his focus towards his next fight.
(H/T UPROXX, Instagram/joerogan)