Joe Rogan is already less a part of the UFC than he ever used to be, working seemingly fewer and fewer events each year. His podcasting work has taken center stage as the defining source of his notoriety, guaranteeing him $10s of millions of dollars in income for years to come.
Which is to say that Rogan doesn’t really have to do his broadcasting work with the UFC to pay any bills, and sometimes that shows. He has, at various times, sounded more checked out, less invested, or more unsure of the action he’s seeing in the cage than years past.