Stephen A. Smith is ESPN’s biggest star and highest-paid talent, so it wasn’t particularly surprising when he made a guest appearance during the broadcast of UFC 246 on ESPN+ last weekend. Smith fired off a signature hot take after Conor McGregor demolished Donald Cerrone, saying he was “disgusted” by the main event, which lasted just 40 seconds.
During his appearance, Smith said that he felt Cerrone gave up after taking a few hits from McGregor.
“Here’s the deal: 15 seconds in, ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone was done. He got hit with those shoulders in the clinch, and he was done. It look like he gave up. It was just an atrocious performance on his part,” Smith said.
Cerrone suffered a broken nose and an orbital bone fracture in the fight. Veteran UFC commentator Joe Rogan was visibly bemused by Smith’s take on air, and many fans and fighters have since called out Smith for his comments.
In the latest episode of his podcast, Rogan argued that it’s a “bad look” for ESPN to be relying on Smith during UFC events, and said that the First Take host “should not be allowed to talk about fighting.”
(Warning: Video contains profanity.)
“I don’t know him as a human being. I’ve only met him a couple of times. He’s a nice guy, nice guy to me. We had a nice conversation. On air, we had a little weirdness because he was just saying ‘we didn’t learn anything about Conor!’ I’m like ‘the [expletive] you didn’t!’ He just destroyed Cowboy in 40 seconds. Like, you learned something. You learned he could perform under the bright lights in a giant pay-per-view after more than a year and a half out of the game. Yeah, you learned something, you just don’t know what you saw.
….. With fighting, you have to know it, or no one’s going to respect you. If you don’t know what you’re talking about and you’re talking about it in front of millions of people, man that’s a bad look for everybody. It’s a bad look for ESPN, it’s a bad look for him, it’s a bad look for the sport. It’s like… there’s other people that can do this.”
Rogan said that he doesn’t believe Smith’s general mode of analysis is appropriate for combat sports, where the stakes are much higher when compared to traditional sports.
“There’s a lot of currency in being a Stephen A. Smith, you know? He’s really entertaining. The [expletive]-talking that he does…. he’s a guy that’s fun to watch. He talks a lot of [expletive] and he gets real loud and everybody disagrees with him. Look, it’s made him a fantastic career. That’s why, and he carries that over to MMA. I think it’s a bad idea.”
Smith went viral again after UFC 246 when he released video of himself throwing punches, and was immediately roasted by the internet.
UFC legend Daniel Cormier defended Smith in an Instagram comment.
“I think it’s fine, he’s trying to better understand our sport. I mean hes a massive star who can talk from his perch and no one can touch him. Yet he chooses to try and learn the game so there is some weight to his opinion.”
[opinary poll=”should-espn-use-stephen-a-smith-during-u” customer=”forthewin”]