Joe Rogan has been slammed by an ex-UFC fighter for his recent comments about the appearance of unbeaten PFL champion fighter Dakota Ditcheva.
Rogan was discussing Ditcheva on one of his recent podcasts where he welcomed comedian Shane Gillis onto the show.
Ditcheva has been making waves with her 15-0 start to her career that caught the eye of Rogan, who forged a reputation as a martial arts expert long before his podcast became one of the most popular in the world.
‘Have you seen that really pretty girl that fights in the PFL?’ he asked Gillis. ‘What’s her name? Dakota Ditcheva? I don’t know how to say her last name. She’s from England.
‘Most of her fights are wins by knockout. She’s this Muay Thai specialist, but she’s pretty.
As clips played of her recent wins, Rogan continued: ‘She’s real pretty and slim and slender. And she just f***s these girls up. She tunes up all these girls. She’s nasty, man.
Joe Rogan hailed Dakota Ditcheva in a recent podcast episode with Shane Gillis
But Rogan’s comments about the English fighter being ‘pretty’ caused a bit of backlash
‘Look at that knee to the body. She’s pretty. She’s got a nice body. If you saw her at a club, you’d say, ‘Wow, she looks really fit. Maybe she’s a crossfitter or something.’ And then she just f***s you up.’
Gillis joked: ‘If you tried to hug her you’d get put in a clinch and elbowed.’
The clip was shared by the PFL’s Instagram page, where it caught the eye of Bec ‘Rowdy’ Rawlings.
She was unimpressed by how much of a point Rogan made about Ditcheva’s appearance.
‘Have you seen that like really hot guy? He fights guys & he’s really f***ing hot,’ Rawlings sarcastically commented underneath the post.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail in June 2024, Ditcheva said how people are surprised to find out she is a fighter.
‘i mean, that’s one of the first things people say, that “you don’t look like a fighter,’ she said.
‘I’m like “why?”. I get where they are coming from, there is a stereotype. But I don’t look rough, is basically what they are saying.’
Former UFC fighter Bec Rawlings criticized Rogan for focusing on Ditcheva’s appearance
Ditcheva is unbeaten in 15 fights but had to withdraw from her next one through injury
Ditcheva won’t have a new highlight reel for Rogan to discuss anytime soon, though.
Ditcheva was forced to withdraw from her February 7 fight in Abu Dhabi with an unknown injury.
In her last fight, in Cape Town in July, she broke her left hand on the way to winning against Sumiko Inaba.
Speaking in the cage after her win, she underlined how she was going to be fighting in PFL for years to come but her growing fanbase will have to be patient before they see her fight once again.