UFC vet backs wrestler participation in the Olympics, despite agreeing with Joe Rogan on pay issues: "There's nowhere else we can go"
Joe Rogan has sounded off on his issues with the Olympics and an experienced wrestler has responded to the UFC commentator.
The titular figure of the Joe Rogan Experience has frequently vocalized his thoughts on the Olympic pay issue with the overseeing organization taking in an ample amount of revenue. Rogan has advocated for athletes to get a suitable piece of that proverbial pie.
A former multi-division UFC title challenger recently localized the conversation to his own anecdotal upbringing as a wrestler and contextualized that with what the Olympics provide for that sport.
On his YouTube channel via his show Beyond The Fight, Chael Sonnen said:
"I know so many people think that they were taken advantage of. So many people think that that is taking advantage but if you came from the wrestling community, I tried to make the Olympic team. It was a really important thing to me. I had a real focus and dedication. I looked at it in a different way. I was very disappointed when it didn't happen."
He added:
"Because of how I revered the games. But from my standpoint and still true to this day with the wrestlers, we don't have a better option. In fact, we don't have another option. There is nowhere else we can go and get put on TV. There's no other platform that we can go to to impress a sponsor or impress upon you our peers that we deserve a good job, a pat on the back."
Check out Chael Sonnen's response to Joe Rogan's comments on the Olympics scamming athletes (6:00) below:
Joe Rogan and his other criticisms of Paris Olympics
Joe Rogan has been vocal about athlete pay discrepancies but his issues with the Olympics extend beyond that. One of the aspects of the Games this year that he seemed to take umbrage with involved the opening ceremony which featured drag queens in a scene that referenced the image of the Last Supper.
The 56-year-old has also offered up his thoughts on another hotly discussed topic within the games as it relates to women's boxing.
Imane Khelif, who also participated in the 2020 Olympics, failed a test from another regulatory body, International Boxing Association (IBA) during a world competition held last year. The IBA stated that she failed a gender eligibility test despite being born a woman. Also, the International Olympic Association does not recognize the International Boxing Association's verdicts.
Khelif met Angela Carini in her latest outing and secured a win in less than a minute with Carini collapsing to her knees in tears after the fight. This drew the ire of many who began claiming Khelif was a transgender woman despite not having sufficient empirical evidence to substantiate that claim.
Joe Rogan joined in on this by vocalizing the same claim and sounding off on the idea that men should not compete with women in sports despite Khelif being a biological woman. The thoughts towards Khelif even extend to her next opponent in the Paris Olympics.