UFC 229: How McGregor ravaged Rogan's "PAPAKHA" Moment at the weigh-ins
The 'Powerful' Joe Rogan has a thriving career as the funniest man in UFC. He has been hardly criticized or ridiculed by anyone. He is revered and loved by all. This highly professional and rational man is not just a fight commentator for the MMA world, he is a "Yoda" figure who inspires and give perspective to millions of fight fans and fighters.
Rogan and his podcast have played a significant role in promoting fights for the UFC and bringing more eyeballs to the event.
MMA fans love him and his hyperbolic rants about combat sports affairs. Rogan was one among the first popular UFC personalities to recognize Conor McGregor's skills.
He even took it to his twitter handle to appreciate the Irish sensation during his early days. The Notorious one clearly has huge respect for Rogan.
It's the same case with other UFC lightweight supremos like Tony Ferguson and the division champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. Rogan has a serious role in hyping up Khabib's skills with his podcast when not many fans knew him. And the Dagestani legend has been grateful for this and has honored Rogan on multiple occasions by bestowing him a "PAPAKHA" ( A traditional Dagestani Hat).
Since then, this practice has become a routine during all the events were both Rogan and Khabib are together, portraying the image that Rogan is a close associate of the "TEAM KHABIB" camp.
Khabib stunned the world with his performance over Edson Barboza at UFC 219. Rogan was blown away watching Khabib maul a superior striker like Barboza and lobbied for a matchup between McGregor and Khabib on live TV during the commentary as that is undeniably a very intriguing matchup in the lightweight division.
Although Tony Ferguson was not so impressed by Rogan campaigning for Khabib.
Rogan is a close friend of Ferguson's BJJ coach Eddie Bravo and closely affiliated with 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu, which is also Ferguson's alma mater.
He clearly didn't want his teammate being a patron of his rival's camp. But that is the story of the past, and Rogan had made peace with Ferguson long ago. The 'Notorious one' one had a message for Rogan regarding the 'PAPAKHA' during the UFC 229 public Weigh-Ins.
"Don't let that smelly rat put that hat on your head, Joe. The king is back!"
The Dagestani legend, Khabib Nurmagomedov, didn't get triggered by these statements made by McGregor, neither did he put the Papakha on Rogan's head this time. Instead, he stated this referring to the Irishman.
"Tomorrow night I'm going to smash your boy, guys. I'm going to smash your boy"
Khabib could have put his hat on Rogan's head again to make a statement here. But he didn't do that. Maybe, he didn't want to put Rogan in a bad spot in front of thousands of Irish fans.
Or maybe, he did not care about Rogan anymore and all he wants to do is "Smash the Irish boy". Anyway, McGregor succeeded in ravaging Rogan's customary "PAPAKHA" Moment this time. But the real question is, can he stop this from happening again during the post-fight press conference tomorrow? Only time can tell.