Chael Sonnen dissects Joe Rogan's 'damage over control' take, disagrees with notion that damage must be caused by striking
MMA scoring and judging criteria have been a point of controversy and discussion for a while now, and UFC commentator Joe Rogan recently gave his take on the same during the Joe Rogan Experience podcast episode with UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling.
There appear to be constant discrepancies in how judges score a fight and what counts as a winning performance. One of the most common points of debate is damage versus control. During their interaction, Rogan made a case for damage to be analyzed in a round as opposed to control, and Sterling appeared to concur.
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During a recent episode of Beyond The Fight, Chael Sonnen gave his take on the same. Agreeing with Joe Rogan and Aljamain Sterling's sentiments, Sonnen voiced his opinion and said:
"I'm with Sterling and Joe and I'm well aware what the rule is. I don't know that I fully agree that Joe misspoke and that Sterling himself didn't know the rule. Perhaps they did... Now look, I'm well aware the rule says that it's damage over control but that is extremely speculative. That is very open for interpretation and how much damage takes precedence over how much control."
Sonnen pointed out that in his last fight against Petr Yan, Sterling essentially controlled the Russian on the ground and kept him there. 'The American Gangster' noted that 'Funkmaster' didn't land any damaging shots on the ground, and while he was looking for chokes, he couldn't find one. However, he did manage to frustrate Yan. Pointing to the same, Sonnen argued that simply counting strikes may not be the fairest evaluation of damage.
"If we're determining that damage can only be done by strikes, see that gets interesting, right?... That would make sense. If one guy hit the other guy twice in a round and the other guy hit them zero times in a round, certainly the damage must've been done by the guy that did... I don't agree. I'm not ready to say yes. I would have to see the round."
Chael Sonnen recalled his wrestling days in college and pointed out how damage could be done without throwing a single strike.
Watch Chael Sonnen's take in the video below:
Joe Rogan was criticized for his take on MMA judging
After the JRE episode with Rogan and Sterling aired, many MMA analysts pointed out that the changes Joe Rogan suggested were the exact same changes that were made to the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts in 2016.
Analysts and fans alike took to social media to point out that the man often referred to as the voice of the UFC didn't appear to be aware that the changes he proposed were already implemented nearly six years ago.
Sean Sheehan of Severe MMA was one of the first to point it out.
Truly incredible clip here.
Joe Rogan, in his podcast, suggests changes to fix MMA judging.
Just so happens those are the EXACT changes which happened in 2016 and have vastly improved judging, with a lot of people, like Joe, seemingly unaware. https://t.co/Sm7MG7EbSA
Luke Thomas of Morning Kombat chimed in shortly after.
@SeanSheehanBA It always sounds so insane to say many of the sport's luminaries and decorated fighters/coaches aren't aware of the scoring criteria, but the evidence for that reveals itself over and over.
There hasn't been any word from Joe Rogan on the subject since the outspoken reaction to his comments.