Joe Rogan: Conor McGregor ‘Can Do Whatever The [Expletive] He Wants’

For anyone who doubts the kind of power that Conor McGregor wields over the sport, look no further than the recent situation surrounding Tony Ferguson and his withdrawal from UFC 223 due to injury.

Ferguson suffered a knee injury last Friday when he slipped on a production cable while finishing up a round of required media interviews ahead of his bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov. It was the freakiest of occurrences, but the injury still happened and Ferguson was forced to drop out of the fight at UFC 223.

Following the announcement that Ferguson was out of the fight, UFC president Dana White then later stated that he was being stripped of his interim lightweight title so Nurmagomedov and Max Holloway could fight for the real 155-pound belt at UFC 223.

During his most recent podcast, Joe Rogan discussed what unfolded with Ferguson’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach Eddie Bravo, who noted how much it hurts the former “Ultimate Fighter” winner to walk into his next fight without the belt.

Not only does Ferguson lose the title but he also loses the ability to earn pay-per-view points and the financial compensation that comes along with being champion. Meanwhile, McGregor hasn’t competed in the UFC since 2016 and even when White mentions that Nurmagomedov and Holloway are competing for the ‘real’ lightweight title at UFC 223, he has still never once actually said the words that he’s stripping the Irishman of his belt.

“Conor hasn’t fought in 500 days. He’s not stripped yet,” Rogan said on his podcast. “He hasn’t fought in 500 days in MMA. Last time he fought was Eddie Alvarez, that was his last MMA fight. That was a long time ago. He hasn’t been stripped.

“So imagine being a lightweight, just sitting around waiting while he’s on boxing TV having a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, he doesn’t even get stripped of his title. He doesn’t defend it. He makes $100 million bucks. They’re like when are you fighting? ‘Who f–king knows?’. “

Rogan says that’s all the proof you need to see how much power McGregor truly holds over the UFC and the sport in general.

In fact, Rogan argues that McGregor’s mystique only grows larger by the day as the world anxiously awaits his return to action.

“It’s all so good for Conor though. It just makes him bigger and bigger,” Rogan said. “They even changed the rules for him. Think about that. For him, it just makes him bigger. He hasn’t fought in 500 days ‘who f–king cares?’. He’s just rolling around in a bathtub full of $100 bills everyday, just diving in there and swimming.

“He can do whatever the f–k he wants.”