Joe Rogan sparks backlash by saying trans athletes 'would get murdered' in UFC

The 56-year-old was in the middle of discussing diversity recruitment in the armed forces.

He then proceeded to wonder what UFC would look like if transgender athletes were able to fight against biological women.

“Imagine if the UFC had to have diversity,” he said.

“Do you know what a problem that would be? If they had to have like a certain amount of trans folks…

"If you had numbers you had to achieve, it wasn’t the best fighters, it was just like who can meet certain criteria.

"There’s gonna be a bunch of people who get murdered."

While discussing the hypothetical situation, he then proceeded to add: “There’s gonna be a certain percentage of people who are there because they’re just awesome and a certain percentage of people that they have to hire in order to meet these DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] standards.

“Imagine if the U.K. had one representative that was supposed to be fighting Francis Ngannou, you have one person who’s supposed to step up and fight that guy and it says, ‘Well the right move is to send in a non-binary woman because they don’t get represented in the UFC.'"

Rogan has often been outspoken.

But trans supporters on X have vented their fury over his comments and taken aim at the American for his views on the subject.

"He also thinks it's physically impossible for humans to have built the pyramids... So...do with that information what you will," said one user.

A second stated: "Amazing we have an unfair advantage and should compete with men but at the same time we aren't strong enough and would die."

Another user said: "These idiots are unsure what will win out, their misogyny or their transphobia, I swear."

"That dude is completely full of s**t and his show is total garbage," ranted a fourth.

A fifth exclaimed: "Wait people actually listen to his opinions instead of just watching his podcast cause you wanna see the guests."

And another mocked UFC by saying: "Yes, imagine people on hormones in the UFC."

It isn't the first time Rogan has sparked controversy on his podcast.

He was previously criticised for comments made about transgender fighter Alana McLaughlin after she won her professional MMA debut in 2021.

Rogan previously stated she was a 'f*****g man'.

But he then seemed to U-turn by insisting he had no issue, saying: “Well, the trans MMA thing was big. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t valid.

“It was people that don’t want any criticism whatsoever about trans people.

"And I was like, ‘Look, I don’t have a problem with trans people, right, I have a problem with someone pretending that they’re a biological woman and fighting women.’

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“Once you say you’re trans and everybody says, ‘Okay, I’ll fight her’ -- fine. I’m fine with that."

Rogan also said Lia Thomas was wrong to be swimming against biological women.

“The swimmer that’s like lapping all these biological women, that’s f****d because they don’t have a choice they have to compete," he said.