Joe Rogan was not a part of the commentary team in EA Sports UFC 4 and fans want to know if he’s back in EA Sports UFC 5. However, there might be some bad news there. The world-renowned podcaster and UFC color commentator will not be joining the commentary team in UFC 5 because of his hatred towards doing voiceovers.
I wonder if joe Rogan will be in ufc 5
— -Jorge- (@CmonSpiderSense) September 4, 2023
Rogan was part of the commentary team in the first three editions of the game. However, in UFC 3, his voice was taken from specific UFC broadcasts instead of him recording it in a proper studio. His hatred for recording lines has been well-known since then.
He was replaced in UFC 4 by former two-division champion Daniel Cormier. DC announced alongside Jon Anik in the fourth edition that was released in 2020. In the same year, creative director Brian Hayes outlined to GameSpot, Rogan’s exclusion.
Joe rogan not on ufc 4 commentary. Dc is #UFC4
— Tristan Evans (@knightevans21) July 11, 2020
“He hasn’t been shy about saying this on his own podcast; like, he hates doing it. If you’re not a person that [can] mentally get into that space, then I can see how it could be a very, you know, challenging, potentially mind-numbing experience for a certain type of individual.
Well, you have to repeat the same lines 100’s of times in a booth til the director is happy so I’d imagine it is. For example, Joe Rogan didn’t do VA for UFC 4 because it’s an awful experience. He’s talked about it a lot of times on the podcast.
— Rowan Kelly (@Rowanlad05) January 19, 2021
“He was open with us from the very beginning that he hated his experience of doing voiceover on previous iterations of other UFC games, and things were no different for us. He hated doing voiceover on these games as well. That has nothing to do with us in particular, or, you know, our games versus other games. He just does not like sitting in a booth reading lines for hours at a time.”
Reports suggest that another reason for his exclusion could be his busy schedule. The 56-year-old is very active on different fronts with podcasting being his most-renowned activity.
Joe Rogan’s busy schedule stops him from commentating for international UFC PPVs
Rogan began his Joe Rogan Experience podcast in December 2009 on YouTube. Since then the venture has achieved a meteoric rise.
In May 2020, Rogan announced a deal with the Swedish music streaming company, Spotify. A deal worth around $200 million was struck between Rogan and Spotify, according to the New York Times. The podcast has witnessed over 2000 episodes and over a hundred episodes of the JRE MMA show.
I’m honored to join the commentary team for UFC 293 alongside @Jon_Anik and @dc_mma. Dream come true. Before I was an mma analyst or competitor, I was a fan just like most of you reading this. Almost 20 years later, I’m here and excited to be a small part of connecting our…
— Laura Sanko (@laura_sanko) September 5, 2023
Some of these podcast episodes are as long as four to five hours. Naturally, Rogan has considerably less time to give to other things. This led him to give up on international UFC PPVs. Recently, Laura Sanko created history by replacing Rogan at the Australian PPV (UFC 293) in Sydney. He has even stopped commentating on Fight Nights and only focuses on PPVs close to home.