If Joe Rogan ran the UFC, he’d do things a lot differently.
The famous podcaster and comedian has been working for the UFC for almost 30 years now, starting out a baskstage interviewer in 1997. Commentating his fair share of fights since then, including last weekend’s UFC 314 headliner between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes, Joe Rogan is one of the more prominent voices in the sport today.
Having seen just about it all in MMA, Rogan isn’t short on ideas when it comes to changing the established UFC format and enforcing the rules.
“There’s many times I wish I was running the UFC,” Rogan said on his podcast.
“I would change so many different things….”
Joe Rogan would take out the cage, replace it with basketball court
The coveted UFC ‘Octagon’ was first introduced in 1993 after a few different concepts were presented, including a platform with barbed wire and a circular ring with fencing.
Rogan has a completely different idea for a fight enclosure, one that doesn’t include the caged walls of the Octagon.
“I got some wacky ideas,” said Rogan.
“I don’t even think they should fight in a cage. I think the cage is an unnecessary element in fighting. To push someone against something or to be able to get up from something. I don’t think it’s necessary.
“I think it should be in like a basketball court,” Rogan proposed.
“Like a basketball court that’s matted up. Have a big space. Have a warning track where if you go outside the warning track too many times, you could lose points.”
Joe Rogan suggests ‘no standups ever’ as rule change
Besides where the fight takes place, Rogan also suggested a new rule change that wrestlers would go crazy for.
Instead of every round starting on the feet…
“When someone takes you down, you have to actually get up,” the UFC commentator explained.
“I think at the end of a round, say if you got a guy mounted at the end of the round, you start the next round mounted on him.
“Because why would you give him the advantage of getting up when he never got up?
“You have to earn a get up. You have to stand up by yourself. No standups ever,” Rogan said.
Often times in MMA, referee will take away certain positions on the ground due to inactivity and reset the fighters on the feet. Rogan’s rule idea would eliminate that entirely.
“Unless someone commits a foul,” Rogan cleared up. “If the guy’s at the bottom and he commits a foul… Take a point away, put him right back in the same spot.”
