"I've never seen that before" - Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier left puzzled as bizarre safety concern delays a UFC 309 fight

Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier were surprised after a bizarre reason delayed the start of the Jonathan Martinez vs. Marcus McGhee fight on the UFC 309 preliminary card.

As the men stood ready to engage after the pre-fight introduction, UFC cutman Scott Rehm approached referee Herb Dean to inform him that the cageside doctor wanted him to inspect Martinez's toes. Dean delayed the start of the fight to inspect the toes himself and informed that he would not allow clipping of toenails.

Rogan and Cormier could not understand what was happening inside the octagon. After Jon Anik explained the situation, Rogan exclaimed:

"Wow! That's new... Very interesting. I've never seen that before."

Check out the video below:

The interaction between Rehm and Dean was also caught on the microphone.

Rehm said:

"The doctor wants you to look at his toenails."

After inspecting Martinez's toenails, Dean responded:

"I'm not going to cut those now."

Despite the bizarre start, the fight proceeded normally. Martinez, who was coming off a unanimous decision loss against Jose Aldo in his last outing, lost to McGhee by unanimous decision.

McGhee fought aggressively and landed some good shots on Martinez. Meanwhile, Martinez had most success with leg kicks in the second half of the fight. The leg attacks had a visible impact on McGhee in the final round as he struggled to keep standing and move around. However, Martinez could not capitalize on his opponent's vulnerability.

While all three judges scored Round 3 in Martinez's favor, McGhee had done enough in the first two rounds to convince them and walked away with a unanimous decision win (29-28 X 3).

With the win, McGhee improved to 10-1 in his professional MMA career. He is now 4-0 (2KO, 1SUB) in the UFC. To his credit, Martinez was the first UFC fighter to go the distance with McGhee, who had finished all nine of his previous opponents (8KO, 1SUB).