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Both are really bad. In the first, Rogan was constantly grousingabout Nurmagomedov's lack of stand-up while he was not onlydisplaying the best striking of his career, but soundly beatingIaquintaa top-10 fighter largely thanks to his kickboxingon thefeet. Was Nurmagomedov's striking world-class, on par with the bestof the UFC? No. Did his stand-up success against Iaquinta owe adebt to Ragin Al's fear of the takedown? Certainly. ButNurmagomedov showed good, technical striking that was far betterthan what most other UFC fighters display. Considering howfantastic his wrestling is, that's an achievement deserving ofrespect, not derision. Not only did Rogan's commentary take awayfrom Nurmagomedov's historic victory, but it was downrightignorant.

Spencer-Cyborg was a fight that saw the Canadian bravely fight tothe bitter end and even open up a cut on her legendary opponentearly in the fight, but it was still dominated by the Brazilian,who repeatedly battered Spencer with strikes and had referee YvesLavigne leaning in, ready to stop the fight at least half a dozentimes.

You would never have guess that by the commentary. Rogan and Anikconstantly praised and complimented Spencer, the fighter beingbadly beaten, while criticizing and downgrading anything Cyborgdid. At some point, the bias approached parody, with Rogan and Anikgushing over how awesome Spencer was for being hurt with a barrageof clean strikes from Justino. While heart and toughness deserve tobe pointed out, it's not as important as the fighter beating thestuffing out of their opponent. Yet, Spencer's grit was the mainfocus of the two commentators, when they weren't pretending thefight was much closer than it really was or that Cyborg wassecretly in trouble. It reminds me of the old joke about how afighter ruthlessly beat up his opponent's hands with his face.

In a wild coincidence that I'm sure has nothing to do with Roganand Anik's embarrassing commentary, Cyborg was on the last fightof her contract and in the midst of a very public, acrimonioussplit with UFC head honcho Dana White, who had no intention ofre-signing her and wanted to reduce her market value. Meanwhile,Spencer was a young, photogenic fighter the UFC was looking topromote. Again, totally unrelated.

However, neither Spencer-Cyborg nor Nurmagomedov-Iaquintafeatures the most biased commentary in UFC history. One would haveto go back many years to the main event of UFC 37.5, which was called by ayoung color guy named... Joe Rogan.

For those who haven't seen it, ChuckLiddell vs. VitorBelfort was a genuinely great battle that I encourage everyoneto watch. It was a tremendous contest between two of the beststrikers in the world at the time, yet wasn't merely a fantasticstand-up duel, but also features some fine grappling exchanges,pitting Belfort's Brazilian jiu-jitsu against Liddell's wrestlingand excellent use of wall-walking, a technique he pioneered.

Round 1 was clearly won by Belfort. Round 2 was close, with Liddelllanding more strikes but Belfort having the hardest connect of thestanza, and Round 3 was also close right up until Liddell landed agorgeous right hook counter that knocked Belfort down on his butt,an iconic highlight which is most people's dominant memory of theencounter.

However, that classic was partly spoiled by the painfully biasedjudging and commentary that was even worse. Two of the judgesscored the fight 30-27 Liddell, and only one of them was CecilPeoples. There is literally no way that Liddell won the openingstanza by any criteria. To use a recent example, RobertWhittaker has as good a claim to winning Round 1 againstDarrenTill as Liddell had to winning that round.

If such judging happened in a UFC main event now, there would bemassive controversy and possibly even an investigation. Luckily forthe UFC, 37.5 occurred in 2002, long before social media, in frontof a relatively small live crowd of 3,700 and with a pay-per-viewbuy rate of less than 30,000.

Yet Rogan had the 30-27 scorecards beat when it came to comicallevels of bias. He consistently cheered and overhyped everythingthat Liddell did while dismissing anything by Belfort. He claimedthat Belfort was hopelessly outmatched and Liddell had himcompletely beaten in every area. Here are a few highlights, withthe action contrasted with Rogan's presentation:

1. Early in round 3, Liddell scores a solid right cross toBelfort's face that causes Belfort to back up slightly.

Rogan: "Oh, nice right hand! Vitor is ROCKED!"

2. A few seconds later, Belfort lands a left cross that snapsChuck's head back and is significantly harder than what Chuck justhit him with.

Rogan: But you know what? That didn't hurt Chuck.Chuck's right hand hurt Vitor!

3. Belfort lands a nice leg kick.

Rogan: That leg kick was very defensive! Hekicked and then he moved away.

4. Belfort lands a head kick at the end of Round 2.

Rogan: That to me tells me that Vitor is TIRED!He's not in the best shape he can be in and is conserving hisenergy.

Rogan also gushed incessantly over a spinning back-kick Liddellthrew in Round 2 that looked pretty but landed on the side ofBelfort's chest, causing minimal damage. This occurs at 2:17 of theround, and Rogan yells "VERY NICE! VERY NICE!" like a manpossessed, then mentions it again and again throughout the round,including at its conclusion. Just seven seconds later, Belfortlanded the best strike of the round, a gorgeous straight left at2:10 that had Liddell momentarily stunned and backing up. Rogan'sonly response? "Liddell has a HELL of a chin!" Beyond that, hecompletely ignored the punch, never mentioning it again.

The most ridiculous commentary moment of the fight came in Round 1,though. After Belfort had taken Liddell down multiple timesdespitesome blatant fence-grabbing by Liddell that referee Big JohnMcCarthy slapped awayand landed some ground-and-pound, Liddelleventually got up thanks to the aforementioned wall-walking.

As soon as Liddell got up, before landing any strikes, with Belfortway ahead in the round, Joe exclaimed, "Liddell is taking over thisfight!"

My guess for this shameless cheerleading? Liddell-Belfort wasbilled as a No. 1 contender's match to set up the next challengerto TitoOrtiz's light heavyweight championship. It's surreal to seeOrtiz passionately cheering for Liddell in the stands, and thenhear Liddell refer to his future nemesis as a close friend in thepost-fight interview. Dana White at the time was not only thepresident of the UFC, but Liddell's manager and close personalfriend, a comically corrupt conflict of interest. White clearlywanted Liddell to win to set up the title fight with Ortiz, withwhom White had had a recent falling out, and apparently told Roganto massively hype up Liddell and oversell everything he did.

I guess one shouldn't be surprised Rogan was responsible for thisthough, as Liddell-Belfort was a combination of the horribleelements of the two more modern fights, all magnified to theextreme.

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Opinion: The Most Biased Commentary in UFC History - Sherdog.com