JRE MMA Show #2

Joe Rogan records this episode from Hawaii, where he is on vacation. He had planned a live breakdown of Michael Bisping versus Kelvin Gastelum, but the fight aired around two in the morning local time, so he watched it the next morning instead. He defends the time off and says he has been "doing vacation type shit." His first point about the fight is not about the result. It is about the scheduling, and he credits Brendan Chobb (spelled that way in the transcript), who made the same point on Instagram.

I don't think you should be allowed to fight three weeks after you have a brutal fight like Michael Bisping did with GSP.

Rogan's reasoning is that Bisping "got rocked" and "got choked unconscious" against Georges St-Pierre, and three weeks later he faced a "really dangerous young and up-and-coming" opponent. Rogan acknowledges the business pressure behind the booking. Anderson Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and the UFC did not want to lose its Shanghai main event. Putting in a former middleweight champion three weeks after his loss made the event bigger. Rogan still calls it "just not smart," and he says Bisping wanted the fight and would probably accept the same offer again. To Rogan, that is why fighters need protecting "from themselves."

He applies the same caution to a possible Bisping fight in England in March, which he calls "less crazy, but still crazy." He counts December, January and February as roughly three months off. He then points out that Bisping will be sparring during that time, and that "He's not going to train easy."

Rogan praises Gastelum heavily. He describes "a beautiful straight right jab and a right hand behind it" against Bisping, "lightning fast hands," crisp and efficient straight punches with snap, and good head movement. He argues that few middleweights have sharper hands. He also says people forget how good a wrestler Gastelum is. For evidence he cites knockouts of Vitor Belfort and Bisping at 185 pounds, and he adds that Gastelum has called out interim champion Robert Whittaker.

He also calls Gastelum a "tweener." With his best camp and performance, Gastelum might beat anyone at 185 pounds. But when Chris Weidman took him down and choked him out, Rogan says it "really did look like you're talking about two completely different weight classes." He notes that losing to a former champion carries "absolutely no shame." He reports that many people think Gastelum belongs at 170 pounds with a proper diet. Gastelum worked with Dolce for a time and "looked fantastic," then stopped because "he didn't want to pay the Dolce money." Rogan says he does not know who Gastelum's current nutritionist is.

Rogan stays undecided. He allows that 185 "could be" the right division if Gastelum loses body fat and adds muscle. He frames the question as a standing debate: should a fighter weaken the body to reach the lowest possible weight, or compete at a natural weight with a healthy body? He also wonders whether Gastelum would have beaten a Bisping who had not just fought St-Pierre, and answers, "It could very well have."

In the middle of the weight-class discussion, Rogan looks up a recent news story. Jessica Lindsay, an 18-year-old amateur kickboxer in Australia, died while cutting weight for a Muay Thai fight. Rogan says the issue "really bothers" him and calls it "the scariest thing."