At the UFC’s 20th Anniversary show for UFC 167, I was live in attendance at the MGM Grand watching Georges St-Pierre defend his title once again over challenger Johny Hendricks. Sitting just a few rows off the floor with a great view of the ring, I watched a hard fought battle between two elite welterweights. Live in the arena, most fans are often put at a disadvantage for having to view the fights without the commentary of the savvy veterans in Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan. With UFC 167’s headliner, it may have been a blessing. I left the arena that night thinking the judges got it right and while it was a close fight, it was hardly controversial. Reading Twitter the next morning, I was blown away at the response from Dana White and many UFC fighters.
I’ve intentionally waited two weeks to let it sit and went back and re-watched the fight from the most objective position I am capable.
After re-watching the fight, I honestly believe Joe Rogan and to a lesser extent, Mike Goldberg, is responsible for much of the uproar. Their commentary of the main event was one of the worst of their storied careers. Let me be clear, I am huge fans of the two men and their work provides for an experience that separates the UFC above its competitors. I have never been critical of their performance in my time watching the UFC. Pre-UFC 79 I watched some events, since “Rampage” Jackson knocked out Chuck Liddell that night, I have missed very few UFC events. And I file no complaints with the two commentators, until now.
I re-watched the fight and took notes as it played out.
The bias that Joe Rogan went into this fight is clear that at times the fight would have been more enjoyable to turn off the sound. The man knows what he is talking about, he is as smart as they come in the sport. I would never begin to even speculate that it was incompetence that led to this. Joe Rogan is not incompetent. But what he is, is a fan of the sport. He is a fan of the fighters. And while he seems to show nothing but the highest levels of respect towards the welterweight champion, his bias towards the challenger cannot be overlooked.
The uproar from so many fighters and fans can easily be attributed back to the commentary of that fight and the manner in which the UFC delivered the broadcast. The pattern of bias towards Hendricks was evident leading up to UFC 167.
The following is my play-by-play of the main event as I watched it. It was fair and balanced at times, and at others it was impossible to overlook what was happening.
Round 1
3:38 – Hendricks throws an upper cut that clearly misses Rogan overreacts with a “WHOA”
3:05 – Hendricks delivers 3-4 elbows, Rogan says how “devastating” they are, despite no visible reaction from GSP. They were solid strikes, but “devastating”?
2:30 – Rogan starts talking about the swelling around GSP’s eye, which is visible.
Adjectives used for Hendricks in first 2.5 minutes are exaggerated, at the very least
1:50 – Hendricks throws a knee, Rogan/Goldberg talk about the “hard blows” that Hendricks has landed so far.
1:30 – “Hendricks is getting comfortably early”
1:15 – Despite GSP/Hendricks exchanging similar blows, only Hendricks strikes are being talked about
Hendricks knees continue getting high praise
:38 – Significant strikes shown on screen with lopsided advantage for Hendricks. 21-11
:28 – GSP throwing strikes, silence from announcers.
:15 – Hendricks throws a punch, “good counter by Hendricks”
End of Round 1 – “OH MY GOODNESS” – Rogan
End of Round 1 highlights are ONLY Hendricks strikes despite the fact both fighters had their shots landed.
(Note: FightNetwork.com has reported that Significant Strikes were 19-18 GSP in the 1st round. Again, with :38 remaining, UFC had it listed 21-11 Hendricks)
Round 2
4:50 – Rogan says Round 1 was one of the most successful rounds anyone has ever had against GSP. REALLY? Why the need to overstate it? Two of three judges scored that round for the champ.
4:20 – Goldberg talks about how Hendricks is one of many great Oklahoma cowboy fighters the UFC has ever had, including him in the conversation of Randy Couture and Don Frye.
4:10 – Hendricks lands a significant blow. GSP is clearly strong on his feet, Rogan shouts “GSP IS WOBBLY”, as if it is GSP/SERRA I all over again. Another exaggeration of the moment.
4:00 – Hendricks lands two more strikes, Rogan says GSP is in “BIG BIG TROUBLE”. I’d agree he was at a decisive disadvantage in the moment, however GSP was steady on his feet
3:45 – Hendricks puts GSP against the cage, delivers a few knees to the thigh with very little force. Goldberg/Rogan talks about the “nasty” knees to the thigh
3:00 – GSP pushes off the cage to regain control of the Octagon. Silence from the announcers
2:36 – Rogan says “nice jabs by Georges” , first praise of the champ in this fight.
2:30-2:00 – GSP in middle of the Octagon with control, delivering jabs, kicks and superman punches. The only thing said by announcers was Goldberg saying “the champs strikes are becoming more fluent”
After 30 seconds of strikes from GSP with no comment from Rogan.
1:58 – Hendricks lands a soft right hook. Rogan immediately says that he lands a right hook. Thought maybe he went for a bathroom break, I guess not.
1:50 – Hendricks leans in with an uppercut, misses. GSP delivers a strong counter strike. Rogan doesn’t say anything about GSP’s strike, talks about Hendricks missing his punch.
1:40 – GSP lands a right to Hendricks, Rogan says “good right hand by George”
1:35 – Hendricks lands a punch, Rogan in a much more elevated tone “Hendricks tags him AGAIN, on the temple!”
1:25 – GSP lands a stiff left jab that pushes Hendricks back. After a few seconds of silence, Rogan says “good jab by George”
UFC displays total strikes landed with advantage to GSP 63-60.
1:08 – GSP lands a strong head kick. Rogan talks about how GSP isn’t moving his head much. No mention of head kick.
:50 – Rogan still talking about GSP not moving
:41 – Rogan says good counter right by George, after a good counter right by George. Thank you!
:20 – Hendricks now moving slower, visibly. Rogan makes mention that the punches are coming slower
Round 2 ends.
Camera sits in Hendricks corner, they are telling the fighter he is up 2 rounds. Coverage now goes to highlights of GSP getting hit.
Following two clips are of George throwing strikes. Camera doesn’t go to GSP’s corner
Round 3
4:50 – GSP throws a head kick up the middle, no mention of it. Hendricks throws three flailing punches that miss, Rogan says “good right hook by Hendricks”
4:42 – GSP stings Hendricks with hard low kick, Rogan starts to say nice kick but Hendricks throws a soft knee, Rogan interrupts himself to describe the knee by Hendricks.
3:40 – Rogan acknowledges the obvious that Hendricks is slowing down
Punches landed at this point are 50-48 for GSP
Next few minutes are back and forth and the commentary seems to be balanced at this point. Praise of both fighters is back and forth.
1:12 – Total Strikes landed for R3 – 32-16 for St-Pierre.
:34 – Hendricks gets a takedown, Rogan says this takedown gives Hendricks the round.
:10 – GSP stands back up.
Rogan makes mention that GSP getting back up is interesting but doesn’t retract that Hendricks won the round. GSP out strikes Hendricks 2-1 in the round, a brief takedown for 15 seconds that Hendricks didn’t advance and GSP stood back up,
End of Round 3.
Camera goes to GSP’s corner. Highlights of this round are one strike for GSP, two for Hendricks plus his takedown. A round that GSP out struck his opponent 2-1, the clips after the round were 2-1 for Hendricks in airing his strikes. When does this ever happen in the UFC?
Round 4
4:40 – Goldberg talking about the success GSP had in round 3 with his striking. Despite Rogan saying Hendricks won the round. Based on WHAT?
4:24 – Total Strikes 115-97 for GSP
GSP lands a strong leg kick. Hendricks has little reaction, Rogan reacts as if it was an illegal low blow.
3:50 – GSP slips and Hendricks goes into full guard. Rogan acknowledges it was a slip.
3:10 – Rogan says if Hendricks can keep GSP down for the entire round, he would “solidify it”. Solidify what? What is Rogan basing any of this on? Clearly not any statistical category.
2:40 – Rogan talking about how busted up GSP is, saying Hendricks doesn’t have a mark on his face.
The optics of the fighters has to be influencing how people are seeing the fight at this point. Goldberg now chimes in how Hendricks does not have a mark on him.
Remainder of R4 is grappling on the fence.
Camera goes to Georges corner again, zooming on the marks on his face.
Highlights are Georges slip and Hendricks in the guard position. Camera now goes to Hendricks corner saying he’s 5 minutes from the belt.
Round 5
Rogan talking about how relaxed Hendricks looks
4:50 – Rogan “George has to be in desperation mode at this point”
4:30 – GSP dragging Hendricks around the ring. Rogan talking about Hendricks balance and the punches he’s flailing.
4:00 – Rogan talking about how Hendricks is a 2x National Champion
No mention of GSP’s octagon control and dragging Hendricks around
3:30-3:15 – Goldberg talking about how Hendricks did 50/100 push-ups when he was 5 years old. Meanwhile in the Octagon, GSP is landing significant punches and kicks, taking Hendricks down. Glad to know Hendricks does those push-ups 25 years ago though.
Is this not round 5 of a championship fight that is currently scored 2-2 by a majority of the judges?
3:00 – After takedown for GSP, silence. Rogan then starts saying “Hendricks is almost back up, George barely has a hold of him”. This is while GSP is delivering knees to the body.
2:35 – Hendricks stands up.
2:25 – Rogan talking about how much stronger Hendricks is than George
2:10 – Goldberg now tells us about Mike Dolce and Hendricks diet.
1:45 – Yamasaki breaks the fighters from the clinch for I believe the third time this fight. Personally I like that he did, but it’s interesting that he’s doing it much quicker than you often see in the UFC. The separation puts Hendricks into a position of advantage.
1:38 – Rogan says that GSP is looking for that right leg kick, says it is the only way he is going to keep the title.
What fight is he watching?
If he said it was close and GSP could be losing his belt, I’d fully understand it. But the decisiveness that he’s speaking with is mind boggling. Fans watching this on PPV live have to be heavily influenced by this.
1:10 – Goldberg starts telling us about how Weidman beat Silva, how Gustafsson took Jones the distance. There is 1 minute left in this fight, what is Goldberg talking about? Push-ups, his diet, past events?
With a minute to go, can we focus?
:38 – Another takedown for GSP, Rogan still praising Hendricks balance.
:10 – Rogan talking about the last ditch effort on the Kimura from GSP.
Round 5 ends
Rogan says he thinks we have a new welterweight champion. Personally, my scorecard reflects the two judges that awarded the fight to GSP.
I’m actually amazed how lopsided Rogan has this.
The clips that the UFC is showing currently as we wait for the judges are HEAVILY lopsided to Hendricks favor, despite Hendricks landing fewer strikes.
I’m still not over how Rogan so comfortably gave Round 3 to GSP.
After the decision and GSP’s humility and graciousness contributes to bad optics. Hendricks is pissed, GSP looks apologetic. What is perceived as him being apologetic is his humility.
I believe the bias Joe Rogan went into this fight largely contributed to the backlash of this championship fight. It does not explain all of it as many in attendance that night felt the challenger won. Dana White went back on his position saying that after watching it a second time he thought St-Pierre won the fight. But media outlets in the arena that covered it live, while many thought Hendricks won, they certainly did not have it as lopsided as Rogan was scoring it. The people who had it as lopsided as Rogan did, were the people who watched the fight while listening to him.
*EDIT and UPDATE: Dana White is now refuting earlier reports that he changed his position, saying he still believes Hendricks won and has not even re-watched the fight*
As a fan of the sport and a fan of Joe Rogan, I’m not asking or thinking he should change. He’s the best at what he does. But UFC 167 was an off-night for him covering the main event.
There are other questions that really can’t be answered though.
- After Round 3, GSP landed twice as many strikes as Hendricks did. Yet in the video clips between rounds 3 and 4, the UFC’s broadcast showed twice as many strikes in the favor of Hendricks. How does that happen?
- Joe Rogan stated that GSP lost that round because of a late take-down, despite all statistical measures favoring the champ. When GSP had those late take-downs, as we seen in the final round, that same value didn’t seem to be applied to the take-down. Value to moves have been inconsistently applied between the challenger and the champion.
- The tracking of significant blows after round one. FightNetwork.com had an article covering the round saying it was 19-18 in favour of GSP. UFC had it listed as 21-11 for Hendricks, with 30 seconds remaining. Now I don’t know for certain which one is correct, but after having watched the fight a few times, I know that round one was extremely close. So the measure of significant blows for Hendricks being 21-11 does not make any sense to me. If that were the case, it would not have been close.
Hopefully we all get to see the rematch and the conclusion is met with less controversy.
Thanks for reading. You can follow me on Twitter: @rickw10, and follow the site @lastwordonsport.
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