Let’s just put this out there straight away and bluntly: Is Joe Rogan trippin’?
The veteran cageside commentator was at the UFC Apex on Saturday night for UFC 258 to call his first event of 2021, and his return gave us one very awkward moment with Polyana Viana.
Viana had just scored an impressive first-round submission win over Mallory Martin during their strawweight prelim bout on ESPN. With Rogan on post-fight interview duty, this is how their conversation started:
Rogan: “Before we even talk about the fight, I want to know: What was it like to become famous for beating up that mugger in Brazil?”
Viana, through translator Alex Davis: “Yeah, that was two years ago. Everybody still remembers. I’m really happy, because that inspired a lot of women to start doing self-defense classes.”
Yeah, that’s right. Viana had just looked really good in winning her second consecutive fight, but for some odd reason, Rogan was interested in first talking about something that happened in [checks notes] January 2019.
It was a viral story at the time broken by then-MMA Junkie reporter Fernanda Prates. But did Rogan just read about it this week?
As awkward as that was, though, Rogan rejoined fellow commentators Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier, and he wasn’t quite ready to stop talking about the mugger story. Here’s what was said on air before going to commercial:
Rogan: “We talked about it during the break, but that fight, that thing that she had in Brazil, we didn’t really talk about on the air, did we? Here’s a viral image of a man with his face beat to hell, and it’s because of this woman. He tried to mug her, and she beat the snot out of him. He became a part of multiple memes.”
Cormier: “He’s famous for getting beat up …”
Rogan: “By a beautiful woman, too! What a terrible life!”
Oh, the cringe.
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