Joe Rogan: Nevada judges are ‘probably getting paid’
Dana White said the Nevada State Athletic Commission was the worst “on the planet” after Saturday’s controversial split decision win for Georges St-Pierre over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167.
On Monday, Joe Rogan took things a step further – he says Nevada judges are being bribed.
“That’s corruption,” Rogan said on Sirius XM’s “The Opie & Anthony Show”. “You’ve got incompetence and you’ve also got people that are probably getting paid. That’s a real problem.”
Rogan brought up the two most questionable boxing decisions in the last two years – Timothy Bradley’s win over Manny Pacquiao and one judge calling Floyd Mayweather’s clear-cut victory over Canelo Alvarez a draw. The judge in both of those cases was C.J. Ross, who stepped down shortly after the Mayweather-Alvarez fight after more than 20 years working for the commission.
Rogan speculated that Ross could have gotten money in exchange for her decisions. He also called her a “dumb c***.”
“That’s where a gambler can influence a judge,” Rogan said. “A gambler with a f***load of money can come to a judge and say, ‘Listen, everybody knows Floyd is gonna win this fight, but if one judge says it’s a draw it’s not gonna hurt anybody.’ … She gets paid, he gets paid and she just vanishes from boxing.”
Keith Kizer, the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s executive director, doesn’t believe there is a problem with his institution.
"Before the fight, both the St. Pierre and Hendricks camps were fine with the proposed judges,” Kizer told Yahoo!. “[Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and former NSAC executive director] Marc Ratner and Dana White have also told me that they believe Sal D'Mato and Tony Weeks (the two judges who scored the fight for St. Pierre with scores of 48-47) were two of the best judges, if not the best, in MMA. You can tell they feel that way by where the UFC has taken them."
Kizer is correct. The UFC has taken D’Amato and Weeks to countries that don’t have athletic commissions to judge fights.
As far as White’s threat that the UFC will scale back its events in Vegas because of the commission, Kizer isn’t concerned.
"I don’t think it's likely," Kizer said. "I don’t think it’s what [White] meant, but in any case, we are a public agency and so we are happy to hear everyone's comments and input."
Meanwhile, Rogan believes there needs to be an overhaul to the entire structure. Not that he thinks it will happen any time soon.
“If they revamp the system, they would have to admit they were wrong,” Rogan said. “It becomes an issue of having to admit you f***** up in the first place.”
