Joe Rogan’s live reaction to the UFC 312 main event was caught on camera for a podcast.
Just days after he shocked the world by revealing he skipped an interview with Kamala Harris to watch UFC 308 with his buddies, Joe Rogan linked up with Brendan Schaub, Bryan Callen, and Matt Serra for another Fight Companion show.
The legendary commentator streamed his live reaction to the UFC 312 middleweight title main event.
Dricus du Plessis smashed Sean Strickland’s nose into pieces as he defended his belt in Sydney, Australia.
- READ MORE: UFC 312 scorecards show just how dominant Dricus Du Plessis was in Sean Strickland rematch
Joe Rogan reacts to Dricus du Plessis winning at UFC 312
As the middleweight champion waited for his second title defense to be confirmed by 50–45, 50–45, 49–46 scorecards from the cageside judges, Rogan and co. paid homage to the South African MMA star.
The 57-year-old MMA icon expressed his belief that the whole fight was changed by Strickland suffering a grim broken nose during the first minute of round four.
“‘DDP’ fought really well, man,” Rogan said.
“It was that big right hand that changed everything… Look at his eyes.”
Rogan went on to consider fights between Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev and Alex Pereira.
He added: “Dricus du Plessis, ladies and gentlemen.
“He’s a tough puzzle to figure out. A very tough fight to figure out – he’s a big f—– for 185lbs too.
“That’s a big f—–. He did a really good job of setting up, throwing that low kick, switch kick to the body, and kept that pace up for the entire five [rounds].
“He keeps getting better.”
What’s next for Dricus du Plessis?
Du Plessis clashed backstage with Pereira after calling him out during his UFC 312 post-fight interview.
A fight with the light heavyweight king makes sense, but it won’t be happening anytime soon as they both have other opponents to deal with first.
Pereira is booked to defend his 205lb title against top contender Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 313 on March 8.
Meanwhile, Chimaev has been waiting in the wings for a shot at gold since submitting Robert Whittaker at UFC 308 in October.
Du Plessis has already revealed his game plan for a potential fight with the 14-0 Russian phenom.
“Counter the jab, oh no, that was the gameplan for Strickland, let me just think of something. The blitz, no, (that was) Rob. Yeah, I’ll just out-wrestle him, that’s the game plan,” he said in his post-fight press conference.”
Du Plessis added: “I want to fight in South Africa and Africa really bad, it’s as much of a dream of mine as becoming and retaining the world title.
“The Khamzat fight, as big as it’s gonna be, obviously International Fight Week would be amazing but I promise you, what is International Fight Week if I can do this in Africa? I don’t even care, I will take a Fight Night in South Africa rather than International Fight Week
“In Saudi, I’ll take him on a PPV in Saudi, for sure, 100%. In fact, I would prefer that. To beat him and conquer another place, yeah, perfect.”