According to TheWashingtonExaminer:
UFC champion Israel Adesanya defended controversial podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan during a fight press conference Thursday evening.
A reporter began to ask UFC President Dana White a question about Rogan, when Adesanya, a New Zealander born in Nigeria, chimed in.
“First off, let me take this one. Hold up, I’m black — I can take this one,” Adesanya said. “There’s a lot of c***s in this game. There’s a lot of snakes in this game. I’ve been in this fight game since 2008, and Joe Rogan is one of the nicest, coolest, humble motherf***ers I’ve had the pleasure of working with.”
“F*** the noise, man — you know what they’re trying to do. You can’t control the man. And he’s got the biggest platform in the world right now, so that’s my n***** Joe Rogan,” he said.
Rogan is facing backlash after a video compilation of him using the N-word over nearly a decade of podcasts surfaced on social media. The compilation emerged as the comedian also faced pushback for interviewing doctors who expressed their concerns over the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines.