(Vid: MMA Weekly)

At his worst, Joe Rogan can come off as an arrogant blowhard with skin like an aging professional wrestler and a voice like a blender left too long on its ‘puree’ setting. At his best, he’s still one of the most articulate and insightful analysts MMA has been able to dredge up after almost 20 years of searching in America. If you really think about it, that’s pretty astounding. In the above video from MMA Weekly, Rogan appears to be in top form during a Q&A session with fans in Seattle just prior to the UFC’s recent “Fight Night” show, especially when the inevitable Fedor questions get tossed up on stage. On the topic of the former consensus No. 1 heavyweight, Rogan says what we’ve all been thinking for the last couple of years, but manages to put it all in the kind of direct (yet somehow elegant) language few other MMA broadcaster have been able to muster.

“I think Fedor is an amazing talent and an incredible athlete,” Rogan says. “I really admire his mind and his mindset when he goes in to compete. It’s really fun to watch that he’s so nonchalant with his big belly and goes in there and fucks people up. But the reality is that’s not going to work at the upper echelon of the sport anymore.”

Fact. Well said, Joe.

You ask us, this video conclusively shows why the UFC continues to stick with Rogan through all the other craziness that so often surrounds his public persona: Despite the bullshit, he may be the best in the business at coherently expressing the points hardcore fans already know and casual fans need to know, all in words we can understand. In exchange (as this video shows) MMA fans will laugh at anything he says that’s even kind of halfway funny.  Pretty much the perfect symbiotic relationship.

The last word on the Fedor topic? Though he doesn’t come all the way out and say it, sounds like Rogan is pretty much advocating a drop to light heavy for The Last Emperor. Frankly, we couldn’t agree more.

“I think at the highest levels of the game you can’t be rolling around fat at 230 against those (top heavyweight) guys,” he says. “We saw that in the Bigfoot Silva fight. Bigfoot Silva walks around at 290-pounds … (Fedor) is an amazing athlete and he’s put on some incredible fights over the years, but I think once you get to the highest levels of the game you can’t come in fat, you can’t be fighting way above your weight class.”