Black UFC fighter Israel Adesanya issued a surprising defense of podcast host Joe Rogan Thursday, affectionately referring to the longtime UFC ringside announcer as “my nigga.”

The remark came during a pre-fight press conference announcing this weekend’s UFC 271 match between Adesanya and Robert Whittaker, where a reporter asked about Rogan’s recent controversy regarding a deceptive video compilation showing him repeatedly saying the n-word.

“Dana, I had a question for you around Joe Rogan. There’s been a lot of controversy with him” a reporter stated, addressing UFC President Dana White and prompting the audience to boo.

Middleweight champion Adesanya jumped at the opportunity to answer the question before White could respond.

“First off, let me take this one, hold up I’m Black, I can take this one,” Adesanya said.

“There’s a lot of cunts in this game, there’s a lot of snakes in this game,” he said.”

“I’ve been in this fight game since 2008 and Joe Rogan is one of the nicest, coolest, humble motherfuckers I’ve had the pleasure of working with. Understand that,” Adesanya said, adding, “F*ck the noise.”

“You know what they’re trying to do,” he continued. “You can’t control the man and he’s got the biggest platform in the world right now, so that’s my nigga Joe Rogan. Fuck the noise.”

The fighter’s commentary comes as Rogan has faced substantial criticism after an old out-of-context video compilation re-surfaced of him repeatedly uttering the n-word following his Spotify spat with songwriter Neil Young.

Meanwhile, Rogan addressed the campaign to have him silenced on Spotify Tuesday, calling it a “political hit job” and adding he doesn’t believe he should “apologize for nonsense.”