Joe Rogan, the 58-year-old popular American podcaster and UFC commentator, has criticized the organization of a UFC tournament at the White House in the open air.
Idman.Biz reports that the event will take place on June 15.
"I don't like the idea of doing it outside at all. It's June, and we looked at last year's information in Washington: it was 37.8 degrees Celsius that day. It was terribly hot. What about dehydration? Bugs are a huge problem. How are they going to deal with them? Dana talked about it recently. They said they could use fans. Is that enough? Are you going to put up mosquito nets? What are you going to do? How are you going to stop the bugs? There are so many. Are you going to spray pesticides everywhere? I just don't think a UFC title fight should be held in an uncontrolled environment. It has to be in an air-conditioned room. It has to be a controlled environment.
You wouldn't ask NBA players to play basketball outside in the scorching sun. That would be madness. They have to play in an air-conditioned arena, damn it, and that's how it should be. Build a damn roof. You have all the money in the world, don't you? You want to do this for America. 4000 seats? Build a 4000-seat arena. Imagine someone losing a fight from the heat. Imagine that becoming a factor. Imagine dehydrated fighters, thirsty fighters now forced to fight 24 hours later. We once held a tournament in the desert in Abu Dhabi. Insects were flying around; they looked like birds," MMAjunkie quotes Rogan as saying.