UFC champion defends Joe Rogan after N-word controversy: 'That's my n*gga'

At the UFC 271 pre-fight news conference, UFC president Dana White was asked about recent controversies surrounding podcasting heavyweight Joe Rogan. White didn't get a chance to answer because UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya intercepted the question and took it upon himself to defend Rogan.

During the mic drop moment, Adesanya stole the show and advised Rogan to ignore the cancel culture mob's attention-seeking roars and "f*ck the noise."

"First off, let me take this one," Adesanya said. "Hold up. I'm black. I can take this one. Look, there's a lot of c*nts in this game. There are a lot of snakes in this game. I've been in this fight game since 2008. Joe Rogan is one of the nicest, coolest, humble motherf*ckers I've had the pleasure of working with. Understand that."

Adesanya stressed that Rogan, whose massive audience outsizes the mainstream media's poor viewership, should "f*ck the noise" and "keep doing you."

"You know what they're trying to do. You can't control the man. He's got the biggest platform in the world right now. That's my n*gga, Joe Rogan. F*ck the noise … Just keep doing you, Joe. Have some mushrooms. Keep doing you."

After the event, Adesanya elaborated with additional thoughts on the situation via Instagram: "We are living in very strange times. When a voice speaks out against the mainstream narrative, the establishment have a systematic way of shutting said voice down. I'm not asking you to think like me, I encourage you to turn off your tv and think for yourself. Don't let them pull the wool over your eyes."

Adesanya also posted a bunch of sheep emojis at the bottom, along with the thematic hashtag "#F*CKTHENOISE." In the viral Thursday post's preface, Adesanya quoted the popular motto, "United we stand, divided we fall."

Rogan made recent headlines after hosting controversial guests including fellow COVID-19 skeptic Dr. Robert Malone who questions the pandemic narrative.

A montage video of Rogan using the N-word was circulated online, leading to the commentator's lengthy Instagram apology last weekend after Spotify removed over 100 of his podcast episodes. Spotify is also planning to add content advisories to podcast uploads discussing COVID-19 in an effort to "combat misinformation."

Video-sharing alternative Rumble has since bucked the Big Tech streaming platform and offered Rogan $100 million to switch over to the pro-free speech site.