Joe Rogan has been blamed for the impromptu face off between Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett following the UFC 317 main event.
This past Saturday Ilia Topuria became the new UFC lightweight champion after separating Charles Oliveira from consciousness in the first round of the UFC 317 main event.
And immediately after the fight, the newly crowned champion faced off with his potential next opponent as Paddy Pimblett was called into the Octagon and the two had an impromptu face off.
Despite the sheer magnitude of that potential fight, UFC boss Dana White was left seething, claiming that the face off shouldn’t have happened.
Joe Rogan blamed for face off between Topuria and Pimblett
Earlier in the night, UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja faced off with his next challenger Joshua Van, who picked up a tremendous win over Brandon Royval on the UFC 317 undercard.
However, that face off was pre-agreed by Dana White and Hunter Campbell as they already stated that the winner of Van vs Royval would receive the next title shot.
And now just a few days removed from the UFC 317 main event, UFC commentator Joe Rogan has been blamed for the face off by lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan.
It was Rogan who called for the security team to allow ‘The Baddy’ to hop over the barriers and come into the cage after he was shown on the big screen by the broadcast.
“It was Joe Rogan’s mistake,” Tsarukyan told Daniel Cormier during an interview.
“Oh, Joe Rogan called him in?” Cormier replied.
“Yeah, Joe Rogan called him in, it was Joe Rogan’s mistake and he shouldn’t even call his name like, ‘Bring him to the Octagon.’ He called Paddy to come to the Octagon.
“I was surprised but when Dana said it shouldn’t have happened I thought, okay, hopefully he’s not fighting for the title… I was upset and said, ‘This is not sport, this is WWE.'”
Arman Tsarukyan won’t fight Ilia Topuria for the title next
Despite the fact that ‘Ahalkalakets’ is hopeful that the Brit won’t fight for the title next, according to White, it won’t be him fighting for the title next either.
Although the Armenian weighed in as the UFC 317 main event back-up, White claimed that was just a ‘step in the right direction’.
However, if not Tsarukyan or Pimblett next, it doesn’t leave ‘El Matador’ with many options to face in his first lightweight title defense.