A familiar voice will be missing from the commentary booth for UFC 265 on Saturday night.
Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie has reported that Joe Rogan — the longtime color commentator — is expected to miss the pay-per-view event. He is in the middle of a comedy tour and will instead be traveling to Wisconsin for an upcoming show that is scheduled on the same day as the card.
Rogan is replaced by former UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, who joins Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier cageside to provide play-by-play commentary throughout the night. Bruce Buffer takes hold of the microphone to deliver fighter introductions and Megan Olivi provides extra coverage such as fighter interviews and interesting tidbits as the roving reporter.
Desk analysts for the pre- and post-fight programming of the evening are well-known names from ESPN. Lead MMA reporter Brett Okamoto will be accompanied by former UFC middleweight title challenger Chael Sonnen and personality Max Kellerman. Kellerman was most recently featured as part of the broadcast team for UFC 264, where the trilogy fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor happened.
UFC 265 takes place this Saturday and will be headlined by the interim heavyweight title fight between Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane. The co-main event is a bantamweight fight between ranked contenders in José Aldo and Pedro Munhoz. The event begins at 6:00 p.m. ET/3:00 p.m. PT and will air live on ESPN/ESPN+ from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The full lineup can be seen here.
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