Joe Rogan is exploring controversial MMA rules take on his latest podcast.
The UFC has been around since the early 90s. The organization was and continues to be a pioneer of mixed martial arts. Over the past thirty years, the UFC and MMA have changed quite a bit. When it first began it was a “no rules” form of fighting that pit all different martial arts against each other. Over the years the rules and other aspects of the sport changed. Now some prominent members of the UFC are calling for those rules to be altered yet again.
Joe Rogan has been a commentator for the UFC for a long time. He is one of the most knowledgeable people when it comes to MMA. He even hosts his own MMA podcast where he can speak with fighters one-on-one. On a recent episode of his show, he spoke with Jorge Masvidal about some rules that might need updating.
Joe Rogan feels blows to the back of the head should be legal in MMA
The conversation between Masvidal and Rogan led them down a path of rules in MMA and more specifically kneeing an opponent when they are down. Masvidal wants that rule overturned and spoke about how he feels not being able to throw knees during grappling benefits the wrestler. Rogan took it a step further and made his case for allowing strikes to the back of the head.
“We shield the wrestler from that potential situation of getting kneed to the face. It doesn’t make sense either,” he said. “I don’t even know if we should stop hitting people in the back of the head. It doesn’t make any sense to me because a lot of knockouts like high kicks, they wrap around the back of the shoulder and they go right to the back of your head and it’s legal, and then the guy gets KO’d.”
Both knees to the head of a downed opponent and strikes to the back of the head are illegal now in the unified rules of MMA, which the UFC follows. The rules were put in place to protect fighters from harm in vulnerable positions. However now that the sport has evolved and fighters are better at protecting themselves and avoiding dangerous situations in most instances, some are calling for the rules to be given a second look.
“In wild exchanges and scrambles, like Cyril Gane and Junior dos Santos, he kind of hit him with an elbow in the back of the head. It’s like, it should be legal. I don’t understand why it’s not legal,” he said. “And people say you’re more vulnerable there but don’t f–king get hit there. You know, Eddie Bravo talked about this all the time. In the old days of MMA when a guy got someone’s back, they will just drop bombs on the back of the head. If you have your back and then the head is there. All this punching just to the side is not realistic.”
There is no word that these rules will be looked over or changed anytime soon, but conversations like these from people like Rogan and Masvidal can be a good step forward in making adjustments where the fighters deem necessary.
Behold, possibly the worst Rogan combat sports take ever (apologies for the shit screen record noises). pic.twitter.com/XgtzUiKeiG
— Precinct DTLA Covington (@ThisIsNotDSP) March 23, 2023
