"It shouldn't be the Ultimate Weight-Cutting Championship" - Joe Rogan on draining weight cuts affecting fighters, suggests alternative approachÂ
Popular podcaster and UFC commentator Joe Rogan recently had MMA personalities John Rallo, former UFC fighter Din Thomas, and former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra over in his show, Joe Rogan Experience. Being the quartet are of MMA backgrounds, the conversation was predominantly about the sport, particularly the long-standing issue of weight-cutting.
Being a huge detractor of weight-cutting amongst fighters, Rogan affirmed his stance by saying:
"You should find out where you f**king really weigh and fight at what you really weigh at. It shouldn't be the Ultimate Weight-Cutting Championship...[Not weight-cutting is better] for everything. Better for the longevity. Better for the health of your physical body that is literally your weapon of war."
Rogan then pointed out a scenario where, if weight-cutting was not a common practice, doing it would be treated as strange and suspicious, saying:
"If nobody ever cut weight and then all of a sudden everybody started cutting weight, everybody [would say] 'What the f**k is this sh*t? You're not 170 pounds. This is a lie. How are you the 170-pound champion when you weigh 200 pounds? That's crazy."
Check out Joe Rogan's comments below (1:48:17):
Joe Rogan believes weight cutting is worse cheating than PEDs
Joe Rogan has been a strong advocate against weight-cutting for many years now. Witnessing frightening weight-cut mishaps experienced by UFC fighters like Aspen Ladd and Renan Barao and the untimely death of ONE fighter Young John Bing, Rogan has vehemently urged promotions to abolish such dangerous practices.
In another podcast episode way back six years ago, Rogan had Gaston 'The DreamKiller' Bolanos over in his studio. Bolanos mentioned that his girlfriend found it "stupid" that fighters would cut so much weight and then rehydrate back the next day. Come fight day both of the fighters would be at their previous weights again. So why cut weight still?
To this, Rogan said (via Joe Rogan Experience):
"It is stupid. It's sanctioned cheating. And it's cheating at a much higher scale even than PEDs [Performance Enhancing Drugs]. If you get two people and they both weigh 135 [pounds], but they're both totally hydrated and one of them has been doing steroids and one of them hasn't been doing steroids, the diffence would be f*cking less than if one person weighs in at 135 but then balloons up to 160 and then gets in to that Octagon [at] 160 but but there's no PEDs involved. That's a much greated advantage."
Check out the full clip of what Joe Rogan said below: