Joe Rogan raises heat and bugs concerns over UFC's outdoor White House event

Joe Rogan has publicly criticised the UFC’s decision to stage its June 14 White House event outdoors, warning that extreme heat, dehydration, and insects could compromise the quality of world championship bouts at the historic Washington D.C. show.

Speaking on a recent episode of his podcast, Rogan said the outdoor setting made him uncomfortable from the moment it was announced. “The White House thing is odd. I don’t like it. I don’t like the idea of fighting outside at all,” he said. “June and it’s D.C. and we looked it up, the last time, like last year, same day, was 100 degrees. That’s hot as f*ck. You add the lights. How about dehydration?”

Rogan also questioned how the UFC intends to handle insects at the venue. “The bugs are a big one. What are they going to do about that? How are they going to f*cking do anything about the bugs?” he said, noting that UFC president Dana White had himself recently raised the issue and floated the possibility of using fans as a deterrent.

Almost every event in the UFC’s 33-year history has taken place indoors. White has long been reluctant to take the octagon outside due to the unpredictable variables involved, and the organisation has drawn on that preference to justify its heavy use of the company-owned Meta APEX facility in Las Vegas — a venue that came into regular rotation during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and has since hosted numerous title fights.

Rogan argued that a controlled indoor environment should be the standard for any world championship contest. “I just don’t think that you should compete in a world championship fight in a non-controlled environment,” he said. “It should be inside an air conditioned arena. You wouldn’t ask them to play a world championship basketball game outside in the sun. That would be crazy. You play in a f*cking air conditioned arena. That’s how it should be.”

The White House event is shaping up to be one of the most expensive in combat sports history. White has acknowledged the UFC will lose money on the show, given the scale of production costs and the absence of ticket revenue — the audience will consist of executives, VIPs, and specially invited guests at the White House itself, while tens of thousands of fans are expected to watch for free at the neighbouring Ellipse park. President Donald Trump and several senior officials are among those planning to attend, with security logistics cited by White as one of the primary organisational challenges.